


Simple as 1 2 3

by angelofcreativity



Series: Keep your head up, don't take your eyes off the road [1]
Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: "Tell it to stop touching my drums!", After I rewatched Bright for... reasons, Alex Mercer Has Bad Parents (Julie and The Phantoms), All past relationships only mentioned, Alternate Universe - Human, Asexual Bobby | Trevor Wilson, Bisexual Flynn, Bisexual Julie Molina, Bisexual Nick - Freeform, Bisexual Reggie Peters (Julie and The Phantoms), Bobby is Not Trevor Wilson, But he'll be there eventually, Changed my mind again, F/M, Flynn and Alex share braincell custody but most of the time it's Flynn's, Fools (affectionate), Gay Willie, Gen, I just don't have the patience to tag nine different people, I'm using What Are the Odds as a plot device, M/M, No beta we die like Sunset Curve's other braincells, Pansexual Carrie Wilson, Pansexual Luke Patterson (Julie and The Phantoms), Ray has only been mentioned so far, Reggie Peters Has Bad Parents (Julie and The Phantoms), That's why no one recognizes each other, They're all best friends I promise, This band has one braincell but it isn't Julie's, This is dumb and I will now stop tagging, and blatantly putting in my favourite songs, i changed my mind, in all their friendships, so far so good, the braincell is in the studio playing with Alex's drums, the braincell went to hang with Tia for the week, what is fanfic for if not to project and generally be unsubtle?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-12 16:40:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 49,890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29512641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angelofcreativity/pseuds/angelofcreativity
Summary: After her mother's death and her subsequent loss of music, performing arts student Julie Molina is at risk of not graduating from her performing arts high school in New York, possibly set to lose her scholarship to the college of her dreams. When a friend suggests a trip to LA to jumpstart her creative batteries, Julie figures she has nothing to lose and agrees.In LA, Luke and his friends are just trying to enjoy a night out at the (very illegal) dance club they frequent. A chance encounter leads to a dance battle and Luke left with a jacket with one name embroidered in the collar - Rose.When Carrie introduces her friends to her brother's band, sparks fly like wildfire. But Luke and Julie are both torn between the person in front of them, and the mysterious stranger they met at the club...
Relationships: Alex Mercer/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms), Bobby Wilson/Sarcastic responses to everything, Flynn/Reggie Peters (Julie and The Phantoms), Julie Molina/Luke Patterson, Julie/being oblivious about identities, Luke/being oblivious about identities, Nick/Carrie Wilson, Past Carrie Wilson/Kayla, Past Flynn/Kayla, Past Luke Patterson/Alex Mercer, Past Nick/Reggie Peters, everyone/bad decisions
Series: Keep your head up, don't take your eyes off the road [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2197299
Comments: 245
Kudos: 78





	1. "Is it a time machine?"

"I am sorry, Miss Molina."

Julie smiled sadly. "I understand. Thank you, Miss Harrison."

Hoisting her bag over her shoulder, Julie made her way out of the classroom and entered the empty hallways. At the foyer, she pulled up short at the sight of the two girls waiting for her. Flynn Carson and Carrie Wilson were both incredibly strong personalities who shouldn't have been able to get along with each other and frequently didn't, but both were so protective of Julie that they built a friendship on that common ground.

"So?"

Julie sighed. "I have until the week after Spring Break, or I don't graduate the performance track."

Flynn looked furious on her friends behalf, while Carrie started to threaten the administration. Julie held up her hands.  
"Lets just go to the studio, okay? I want to forget about it for a while."

The girls hooked arms and started the trek to their favourite after school hangout, a local dance studio. Along the way, they bought one of the famous street pretzels to share, finishing just as they got to the building.

"Molina!" they heard as Julie pushed open the door. "Wilson! Carson! There are my favorite boarding school brats!"

Julie grinned. "Hey Willie."

Willie came over to give each of the girls a hug. An alumni of their school, he'd been the year above them and had been a big supporter of what he'd nicknamed Triple Threat. He kindly kept referring to them as a unit, even though Julie had joined the day scholar stream after her mother's abrupt illness and passing the year before. 

"Hey Skater Boy," Flynn greeted fondly, ruffling his hair. "How was the date?"

Willie made a face. "His name being Dante should have been my first clue." 

As he told them about the disastrous date with the Starbucks waiter he'd met, Willie led them to the studio where Carrie practiced with her group and Flynn did her DJ work for the girls. 

After they were dropped off, Willie and Julie walked together to the art room where she explained the consequences of her loss of music. She looked up from the explosion mural she was painting when Willie whistled lowly.

"That's harsh, Julie-bear. I'm sorry."

She shrugged stiffly. "Nothing I can do right now. What I can do is finish this mural. Help me with the shading?"

**********************

Flynn and Carrie burst in just as they were finishing their final touches on the fire. 

"I've got it!" Carrie announced without preamble. Julie looked up from cleaning her brushes.

"Got what?"

"The answer to all our problems!"

"Is it a time machine?" Willie asked with a grin. "Because if it is, there's an accident I had with a moving car when I was 12 that I wouldn't mind you undoing."

Flynn pointed at him accusingly. "Disaster gay."

"Look who's talking, disaster bisexual!"

"Enough!" Julie called before her friends could get into it. "Carrie, what's your idea?"

"We," Carrie said with relish, "are spending spring break in LA."


	2. "Are you calling me normal, Julie-bean?"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Julie, Flynn, Willie and Carrie go to a sketchy underground club that is definitely a fire hazard. Meanwhile, the band find out that Bobby's twin sister is home for spring break, and a dance battle breaks out because Reggie is protective of his friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning: mentions of a drink, but no one is drinking alcohol, it's all water because these boys are allowed One Smart Decision a day and they decide on water.  
> Surprise updates because I'm dealing with a loss, so enjoy my displaced grief I guess.

"I can't believe you talked me into doing this our first night here," Julie groused as Flynn applied purple facial paint and glitter to her eyelids. "Why can't we rest like normal people?"

Carrie shot her a look from where she was doing Willie's face with white paint. "Are you calling me normal, Julie-bean?"

"Never, Care-bear, but it’s a long flight here and I want to sleep."

"Jules, we're here for a week," Flynn said, carefully applying purple glitter to the edge of the paint curling over Julie's cheekbones. "We may as well take every chance we get."

Willie took the offered brush from Carrie and began painting her face with dark pink paint. "If you really don't want to go though, you don't have to. We won't force you."

Carrie and Flynn shot him identical betrayed looks, and Julie couldn't help but laugh. "Nah, I'll go. I can't guarantee I'll stay the whole time though."

She took the offered yellow paint and gold glitter, turning to Flynn to start. "Any requests?"  
"Surprise me."

Julie did a swirling abstract pattern, carefully edging it with gold and crusting Flynn's eyes with the same glitter. When they lined up to examine themselves in the mirror, the four broke into identical grins. 

Flynn loved her abstract, almost tentacle design, while Willie's war paint look was complimented by the iridescent glitter over his eyelids and cheekbones. Carrie had a design of small dark pink hearts clustered over her eyes and cheekbones, more glitter defining them than any of the others. To be fair, the glitter suited her best.

Julie let out a soft gasp when she saw what Flynn did. Her face paint formed a swirling butterfly, the edges of the wings looping over her cheekbones. The glitter had carefully defined the body and markings of the insect, and with her glittery eyes, Julie felt she was someone else. Someone more mysterious and beautiful and intriguing. She wasn't Julie Molina who had spent the last year defined by her grief. She was someone worth noticing.

"Flynn, I love it," she exclaimed, spinning on her heel to give her best friend an overwhelming hug. Flynn laughed and threw her arms around Julie's torso. 

"You can't wear that though," Willie said with authority.

Julie looked down at her clothes - a comfortable mesh crop top over her sports bra, and close-fitting tights. "What's wrong with this?"

"Nothing, if you were planning on going to class, “Carrie said delicately. "But this is one of the hottest underground clubs around. Willie is right, you need to primp it up a bit."

"How legal is this place?" Flynn asked, helping Carrie pin her hair up to put on a light pink wig. "Like I'm assuming not super legal, but on a scale from 1 to 10..."

Willie handed Julie a white crop top that had splashes of dark purple tie dye before going back to scour her clothes. Julie pulled off her top and replaced it in time to be handed a pair of high waisted black shorts with corset style lacing on the bottom seam, extending an inch up her legs on either side.

"Bobby told me about it," Carrie replied, settling her wig on. "His band hangs out there sometimes I think."

"So, it’s extremely illegal," Willie teased. Carrie laughed and nodded - her brother was known to frequent some questionable places. 

"We should be fine," Carrie said, catching Julie's nervous eye in the mirror. "That's why we do the paint."

Julie nodded and grabbed her leather jacket. She didn't really need it, since the spring in LA was much warmer than the New York she was used to, but she wanted the comfort. There was a part of her that marveled at the thought of it - wearing the same jacket her mom had so many years ago when she was on the club scene, bouncing from club to club, working some and playing others and just dancing at even more, going wherever the music led her, until it led her to photography student Ray Molina. Rose claimed it was love at first sight, while Ray claimed it was love before first sight in his case, but either way the result was Julie and her brother.

Julie came back to the present when she saw Willie nod approvingly. "I like it. It adds a certain toughness."

She smiled and bumped his arm affectionately. "Come on, let’s go let Carrie's brother's club get us arrested."

Carrie's protests were lost as they descended the stairs to find their Uber.

***************************************************************************

"What's wrong with you?"

Bobby raised an eyebrow. "Thanks, Luke, because you're always such a ray of sunshine to be around."

Luke grinned. "Man, you know what I mean. You look like Reggie when we say no to street dogs."

The boys shuddered in tandem at the reminder - three days’ worth of food poisoning and, in Alex's case, a brief hospital visit. 

"My sister is home for spring break."

Luke whistled. "Baby Wilson actually came home? Doesn't she usually stay at her fancy boarding school?"

"Yeah, but she and her girlfriend broke up and Dad told her we need 'family bonding'." Bobby said the words with disgust, as though having his Rockstar father and talented sister around for a week was a hardship.

"Who has family bonding?" Reggie asked, plopping into the booth next to Luke and rubbing at the face paint he had on, a bold stripe across the eyes. All five boys wore it in a single streak across their faces, though in different colors - red for Reggie, white for Nick, blue for Luke, pink for Alex, and black for Bobby.

"My sister came home for spring break."

Reggie's eyes lit up, and Luke pointed a warning finger at him. "Reggie, no."

Reggie sagged. "Fine. But dudes, come on, let's dance!"

With much coaxing, Luke and Reggie got Bobby to reluctantly join them on the floor, holding their drinks in the air as they jumped. Alex found them quickly, his pink shirt a dead giveaway to his identity, dragging Nick behind him. Nick was a new addition to their group, the backup guitarist when Bobby hadn't been able to make a show who surprisingly meshed quite well with them. Reggie had briefly had a thing with him, but they'd both agreed they had a better dynamic as friends. 

"Carrie is home for break!" Luke yelled in Alex's ear. Alex's eyes lit up - before she moved to New York to board at an exclusive performing arts private school, Alex and Carrie had been good friends, sharing an intense love of dance in a different way to the others. Reggie and Luke were both good dancers, and Nick and Bobby weren't bad, but Alex and Carrie had spent hours after band practice working through routines together. 

"Why didn't she say anything?" Alex yelled to Bobby.

"She only arrived like an hour ago," Bobby yelled back. "I haven't seen her yet!"  
The DJ transitioned to a slightly softer song, so Luke would only have to yell a little above the volume of a jet plane to get his point across.

"Why are you here then, man?"

Bobby gave him a dry look. "Despite popular belief, Lucas, I do have better things to do on a Friday night than wait to hang out with my twin sister."

Nick and Reggie exchanged grins while Alex snorted at the use of Luke's full name. Before Luke could reply, someone bumped into his back, sending him stumbling forward and spilling his water across the ground. He looked mournfully at it for a moment before turning to address the person who'd hip checked him.

It was a girl, her long dark hair sporting pastel purple strands of extensions, in a purple and white tie dye top and black shorts. Instead of the solitary band of color over her eyes that most did to gain access to the club, she had an intricate creation of paint and glitter across her face, but it was too dark for Luke to make out the specifics.

He tried to signal, something like "are you okay", but she immediately started yelling an apology. Before he could reply, a girl in a pink pastel wig with more glitter on her face than a disco ball hooked her arm through her friends, threw Luke and his friends a filthy look, and marched away.

"Oh hell no."

The statement came out from both Reggie and Alex, and Bobby visibly sighed. "Here we go."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos and comments make me happy, but no requirement if you don't want to :) For the music, I have no idea, my idea of a good time is rocking out to the JatP soundtrack and a mix of old country songs, so use your imagination and/or impose your favorite songs. Hope you enjoyed!


	3. "Oh boy, did you choose the wrong girl to challenge."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The dance battle begins, Julie is in awe of her friend's talents, and Luke becomes a simp because some things are consistent in every universe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning: physical contact that could be considered restrictive. I don't think it reads badly, but rather safe than sorry. Mentions of physical pain towards the end of the chapter - not graphic.

"Why didn’t you let me apologize?" Julie demanded when Carrie dragged her back to where Flynn and Willie were dancing, a small circle cleared around them.

Carrie counted it off on her hands. "One, because then he'd think you were wrong, and probably try to take advantage. Two, because you weren't wrong, and three, he shouldn't have his back to the most crowded part of the floor."

Julie frowned at Carrie's logic, but before she could argue, Carrie was folded into the dance Flynn and Willie were doing, seamlessly picking it up. Julie kept her 'dancing' to swaying on her toes, sometimes nodding her head, and smiling at Flynn's antics. When Carrie tried to fold her in, Julie shook her head - dancing would come back at a special time and place. Not a sketchy somewhat illegal underground club that was definitely violating fire codes.

The song changed to something with a deeper bass, and a throat was cleared behind Julie. 

She turned to find two boys staring down her and Carrie. She recognized them as the friends of the boy she'd accidentally bumped when someone spun into her - the taller in pink with blonde hair and a fanny pack strapped across his chest, the shorter one in a white vest with dark hair and a red smear of paint across his eyes. It looked different to the pink diagonal smear across the blonde, reaching from right temple to left cheek.

Carrie turned in time to see the boys give Julie the "let’s go" signal. Julie stumbled backwards, unprepared, as the boys broke into a dance they clearly had practiced. 

Carrie popped up at Julie's shoulder and sneered at the boys. When three others popped out, her arrogant face fell slightly, but she held fast even as the five stepped in a row and waited for Julie to respond.

Instead, Willie and Flynn stepped up behind Carrie. The three of them did a routine Julie knew had started life as a Dirty Candi routine until it became clear that none of the petite dancers in Carrie's group had the strength to lift someone above their heads. Willie, however, had the strength in spades, born from years of dance and skating tricks, so Flynn easily cleared the ground.

The other group responded in kind, and the part of Julie's brain that existed just to watch art in motion kicked in, watching the different dynamics between the boys as she analyzed their dancing. The red and blue paint boys were clearly back up for Mr. Pink, as Julie had decided to name him, while Mr. White and Mr. Black looked like they were there mostly for moral support. Mr. Pink was amazing, getting up in Willie's face, but to Willie's credit he didn't give an inch.

And then... then Mr. Red was turning... to her?

"Do you let your friends fight all your battles then?"

The club fell silent, the music deafening, as Julie felt her tether snap.

She wasn't Julie Molina, daughter of Ray, who saw the world in all its beauty.

No, now she was Julie Molina, daughter of Rose, who had fire in her veins and a boy in front of her who clearly needed to learn a lesson.

She saw Flynn break into a grin. "Oh boy, did you choose the wrong girl to challenge."

***************************************************************************

Luke watched in awe as the girl in purple stepped in front of her friends. Though she had no way of knowing why Reggie tried to draw her out, she clearly didn't take kindly to his implications as she got in his face. 

"You want a battle, Red? Well, here you go."

She spun around, launched herself at the guy with the topknot, and Luke felt his mouth drop open at the most intense dancing he'd ever seen. Purple Girl didn't appear to have bones from how liquid her movements were, and from the way the others fell in behind her, it was clear she knew exactly what she was doing with her improvisation.

He tried to keep up when their turn came, doing the mirror of Nick, but it soon became clear this battle had shifted. It wasn't the five in the band against the four interlopers. This was between Reggie, Alex, Topknot and Purple Girl, and they all knew it. 

Nick was drawn in against the pastel pink wig girl, breaking her aside. Luke wasn't 100% sure if they were battling or dancing, but as Bobby slipped away and Luke fell to the side to watch, he took the smaller group as a win.

The girl with yellow in her braids and across her face caught his attention as she appeared out of nowhere to join her friends again. Looking around, Luke saw Nick still dancing with Pink Wig, although she'd claimed his white fedora, and Bobby nowhere in sight. Luke wasn't about to let Alex and Reggie down. Mentally yelling at Bobby, he joined the fray again.

Yellow Braids pushed Reggie's chest with very little force, but it was enough to have him follow her to where they also began a confusing mix of flirting and battling. 

And then there were four.

With Reggie gone and Alex putting his entire focus against Topknot, Luke was left with Purple Girl. He tried to smile at her, to show her he wasn't taking this as seriously as his friends were, but from the fire in her eyes, it was clear his telepathy skills had yet to develop. 

She shot off a combination that had him questioning if she had a spine again, before he tried to respond. Thing was, Luke only knew some dance moves, enough to back up Alex and Reggie if they ended up in a battle. This girl was very clearly next level, as she took off her short leather jacket, used it to clear a space, then hooked it around his neck to pull him right into her face.

She smelled of cinnamon, he noted with the tiny section of his brain not currently short circuiting. Cinnamon and vanilla and leather, although that could be the jacket.

"Concede," she ground out in his face. He could only nod - Luke couldn't have said anything if there had been a teleprompter with three-foot-high words. With a grin, she released him and stepped back, and the crowd watching applauded her. 

He grabbed the sleeve of the jacket before she could entirely disappear. "What's your name?"

She laughed, though he could barely hear it over the noise of the new song beginning. "That isn't how this works, Blue. You don't get a reward for losing."

He opened his mouth to argue, but one of the surrounding crowd members bumped into the two of them. Luke and Purple Girl stumbled into each other, Luke going onto his knee and hissing in unexpected pain. Purple Girl's face flipped in a second from victory to compassion as she saw the pain written across his face. "Are you okay?"

He was, but he wasn't about to turn down an offer from a pretty girl with killer moves to help him back to the booth. Bobby was nowhere in sight, so he sat and drank the waters there, figuring he deserved it.

Luke watched Purple Girl cautiously as she watched him, perched on the cracked vinyl of the seat carefully with her jacket folded on it next to her.

"Nice jacket," he yelled over the music. She smiled, lighting up her face and scrunching her nose, and he immediately changed his mind. Her passionate about dancing was a thing of beauty, but her smiling made him ache for a pen and his journal, to make bad metaphors about horizons and her dimples.

She opened her mouth to respond, but because the universe hated him, Topknot and Pink Wig appeared, Pink Wig still wearing Nick's fedora. They yelled something to Purple Girl, who went from concerned to panicked and shot to her feet without a second thought, pushing through the crowd. Her friends followed, and he was left pouting for all of five seconds before he remembered her jacket.

"Wait!" he yelled, scooping it up. But when he turned around, she had already disappeared into the crush of bodies. Luke pushed against them, getting to the exit and breathing in the salty taste of the ocean air, but Purple Girl and her friends were gone.

He threw his arms out dramatically, much like he had when Alex had broken up with him a few months previously but caught sight of elaborate embroidery just inside the collar of the jacket. A single name spelled out in red and gold embroidery thread.

Rose.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed! I have about two more chapters typed out in full, but university is kicking me where the sun don't shine so updates may become sporadic (or may crank out faster because What Is Sleep). Comments and kudos appreciated, but not required. Thanks for reading! :)


	4. “Bi-privilege, suck it up.”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bonding time for both our groups.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More of a filler chapter than anything, but necessary for plot reasons. And a longer chapter tomorrow, promise.  
> Disclaimer: I'm basing all mentions of grief on my own experience, because what are our favourite characters for if not to project onto? If anything is wrong, drop me a message and I'll fix it :)

"You could have told us where you were," Julie told Flynn accusingly, helping to remove the yellow ribbons Flynn had threaded through her braids. "I am all about meet cutes for you after the disaster with Kayla, but you have to warn us!"

Carrie and Flynn shuddered in tandem at the mention of their ex-girlfriend - Kayla had dated them both and had ended things recently with Carrie, but Flynn had yet to date anyone since her.

"I'm sorry, Jules. I got caught up in the moment."

Julie let out a sigh. "Yeah, okay. Just... warn me next time please."

Willie gave Julie a gentle hug. Ever since Rose's passing, Julie had become pedantic about her friends and family, and this hadn't been the first time she'd worried over one of them.

"So, Julie-bean," Carrie said as the four of them entered the bathroom together to wash off the face paint. "That guy you danced with."

And there it was. Julie had been waiting all night for someone to bring up the fact that for the first time in more than a year, Julie had danced, and it wasn't in a special, perfect place, but rather because some arrogant toerag called her out and she lost her temper.

"He was cute," Julie said nonchalantly. "Maybe cuter than that girl from my English class, but I can't be sure."

Willie grinned at her reflection in the mirror. "I'd say he's definitely cuter than her."

Julie snorted as the last of her purple paint disappeared down the drain. "You're gay and biased and don't get a vote on this matter."

He grasped at his chest dramatically. "That is rude, Julie-bear!"

"Bi privilege, suck it up."

Flynn and Carrie laughed as they began to dig for pyjamas, while Julie changed into her set that she had lain out before they left, and Willie flopped down in his street clothes and clearly had no plans to change.

"That thing you did with your jacket?" Carrie said, finding her pastel pink nightgown and holding it up. "That was inspired, Miss Molina."

"Why thank you, Miss Wilson," Julie replied, taking a mocking bow. Flynn popped up, halfway into an old shirt, and frowned.

"I didn't see that; what did you do?"

"Oh, I'll show you. Where did I- oh no."

Willie sat straight up. Julie didn't use that tone unless things were bad. Carlos sleeping in her bed because of nightmares bad. Leftovers all week because Dad can't cook bad.

"Jules?" Flynn asked, approaching slowly with her shirt finally on correctly. "What's wrong?"

"My mom's jacket. I lost it."

None of them blamed her when she broke into tears.

*******************************************************************************

"Dude, be quiet!" Bobby hissed at Reggie when he knocked over an umbrella stand. Privately, Luke thought it was hilarious that Bobby was worried - the house was enormous, and even if Carrie was home, the trip from New York to LA took hours and she would be asleep for sure.

"We live in LA!" Reggie replied in a heated whisper as they started to tip toe up the stairs. "Why do you guys even have so many umbrellas?"

"Rich people are weird," Nick replied, bringing up the rear of the group. The boys bickered quietly as they made their way to Bobby's room to wash off paint and get ready for bed - it was easier to tell their parents they would crash at the Wilson's on club and gig nights, since Trevor would claim they were there with faith in his son that came from eighteen years of Bobby and Alex sharing custody of Sunset Curve's sole brain cell. Luke didn't want to imagine the reactions of Mitch and Emily Patterson if they caught him sneaking in at 3am with face paint and glitter all over his clothes, reeking like a brewery from all the spilled drinks in the fire hazard of a club.

As they passed one of the firmly shut doors he had always assumed was an unused guest room, Luke heard quiet crying and frowned. Was that Carrie? Was she that upset to leave New York for a week, or was she still recovering from her break up?

Privately resolving to be extra nice to her when he saw her, Luke jogged to catch up to the boys. He slipped in just as Reggie pushed Nick off Bobby's enormous bed, much to Nick's frustration. Luke grinned as he shrugged off his flannel and went to the bathroom to wash the blue paint off his face. He loved his boys.

He loved them a little less when he woke up to Bobby's alarm at 8. Not only was it Spring Break, but it was a Saturday, and therefore illegal to be awake before 11 in his book.  
Nevertheless, Nick obediently sat up, waking Alex, who woke Reggie, who nudged Luke right off the bed.

"Dude!"

Bobby sat straight up, eyes still shut. "Huh? Wassappening?"

Luke rolled his eyes. "Nothing, man, don't worry. Reggie is just trying to murder me."

"Oh good," Bobby said more distinctly, "I was worried it was something important."

Alex began to laugh, muffled by the arm he had over his mouth. That set off Reggie, which was when Luke decided to see if the Wilson's chef made pancakes. With all the dignity he could muster, he rose to his feet and marched to the door, only to yank it open and be met with a startled female face.

"Hi Luke,” Carrie Wilson greeted, apparently taking it in stride. "How have you been?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed. Comments and kudos are wonderful, but not required.


	5. “They had no proof that monkey had anything to do with me.”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our babies all meet and have much blushing. Fluff, basically, because I needed it.
> 
> Alex, Carrie and Julie are all best friends and people can fight me on that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woohoo, an actual longer chapter! No trigger warnings as far as I know, but please let me know if I miss any.

Julie was starting to get worried. Carrie was only meant to be gone a few minutes, to check if the chef was in residence or if they would have to make breakfast themselves. But Julie had cried herself out, had water, then cried again, and there was nothing from her best friend.

"Should we go find her?"

Flynn shook her head. "It's her house, Jules. I'm sure she's fine."

Julie bit her lip, but Flynn merely turned back to braiding Willie's hair, while he shot her another concerned look. While Julie had adored how ready all three her friends were to comfort her, she was frankly sick of crying. She had cried for months, years, decades at this point. There had to be a point where she said enough.

Apparently, her tear ducts disagreed, as her traitorous brain reminded her about her mother's jacket once more and she wiped tears away discreetly. The jacket had contained more than the courage Julie so desperately needed. In an inside pocket sat Rose Molina's final gift - the letter she had written to her daughter one week before her passing, one Julie hadn't had the courage yet to read but that she carried with her everywhere she went. And now some random guy at some random club had it, and oh no here come even more tears.

Julie got up and determinedly grabbed a pair of baggy trousers and a fitted blue shirt from her suitcase. Changing quickly, she tied her hair back with some difficulty, wiped off the last of the paint she had missed the night before, and slid her feet into her shoes. She was going to find Carrie.

Or Carrie would find her, it seemed, as the door was opened just as she began to reach for it. Carrie had a neutral expression, carefully blank, which did not bode well.

"We have to make our own breakfast, don't we," Willie said, not sounding too bothered.

"No, the chef is here, and thank goodness because my brother is not someone you want near the stove." As she spoke, Carrie put her hair up and slipped on her glasses, matching Julie with a smile. "But it turns out my brothers band crashed here last night, so we have breakfast company."

Flynn finally looked up. "Is that bad? I don't remember them being that bad."

Flynn, Julie and Carrie had all lived in LA before attending NYPA high school. While Julie's family had moved when she got her scholarship, Flynn's moms had only moved up a year after she began attending, and Carrie's dad stayed in LA.

Julie tapped her chin. "I can't really remember them, to be honest. It was so long ago."

"Plus, we were at different schools."

Carrie waved her arms to get their attention back on her. "They're basically harmless, but after last night I wanted to make sure company would be okay with you, Julie. If you want, we can go out, or eat up here."

Julie smiled. "I appreciate it, Carrie, but I think I'll be fine for breakfast. If anything happens, I'll just go to the kitchen or something."

"Awesome, let's eat." Willie rose to his feet and led the way out.

"Aren't you going to change?" Julie heard Carrie ask.

"For your brother and his friends?" came Flynn's sarcastic reply. "I'd rather eat eggs and peanut butter for breakfast."

"Don't diss it ‘til you try it," a slightly grumpy male voice said from the table as the group rounded the corner.

Julie was about to respond in disgust before her eyes met surprised green and she felt her world tilt slightly.

**********************************************************************************

Luke vaguely remembered Carrie's friends from middle school. She and Bobby had attended different schools for some weird reason, something to do with the divorce agreement, so he would only see them in passing when their two groups happened to be entering or exiting the Wilson residence at the same time. He remembered the laughing and too loud pop music that had interrupted their hang outs as well, and the loud rock music they would play in retaliation.

But Luke thought he would have at least remembered an angel.

Apparently not, as the startled celestial being stared back at him. Her hair in a hair tie over one shoulder, her glasses perched on her nose like an afterthought, the girl seemed shocked at his presence.

"No way," Alex exclaimed as he entered, a plate of pancakes drizzled in syrup in his hands. "Is that really Julie Molina?"

A smile broke her face. "Alex!"

Luke and Alex had an exceptionally good relationship. They were supportive of each other, didn't get jealous, and didn't let their three-month past relationship affect the dynamics of the band. So, Luke was absolutely not green with envy as Alex wrapped his arms around the girl and almost lifted her off her feet.

Nope.

No jealousy here.

Alex is gay, Alex is gay, Alex is gay...

Luke was brought back to reality by Carrie giving him a knowing glance. He made a face at her and defiantly shoved some waffle into his mouth.

"When Carrie said the band was here, I didn't realize she meant you," Julie said, grinning at the drummer. "I thought you would have moved to bigger things by now."

"Nah, these dorks need someone to look after them," Alex said affectionately, gesturing to where Luke continued to eat his waffle and Bobby was still basically asleep over his  
coffee. "Luke, this is Julie Molina."

Luke waved his fork before swallowing. "Hi, I'm Luke."

Julie smiled. "Nice to meet you. This is Flynn, DJ and rapper extraordinaire, and Willie, the most amazing dancer and skater you'll ever meet."

Luke waved at the girl with the braids, before watching with amusement as the skater and Alex met eyes and everything appeared to go into slow motion. A grin spread across Willie's face slowly, obscuring cheekbones that could slice salami, while a blush colored Alex's entire face and spread partially down his neck. If he had his guitar, Luke would start playing something dumb to make Alex even more flustered - maybe the beginning of In Your Starlight.

"Hi," Alex said softly, in a voice Luke had thought was reserved for the time they spent together. "I'm, um, Alex."

Willie held out his hand. "I heard. Nice to meet you, man."

They stared into each other’s eyes for a few more moments, before Reggie showed his impeccable timing, knocking something to the ground in the kitchen with a loud clatter.

"I'm okay!"

"I'm not."

Carrie snapped her attention away, as did Flynn and Julie. The three girls headed to the kitchen to save Reggie and Nick, presumably, while Alex finally broke eye contact and sat across from Luke with his own waffle. Willie, after a second of deliberation, followed the girls.

"So," Luke said teasingly, drawing the word out until it had about ten syllables.

Alex pointed an accusing fork at his friend. "No. Not unless you want Julie to hear about the time you got distracted by a busker and walked directly into oncoming traffic."

Luke pouted and turned back to his breakfast. "You suck the joy out of everything."

"It’s the price I pay for braincell custody."

Reggie and Nick returned to the table, both with breakfast in hand. A few moments later, the visitors trooped out, each holding a plate of the Wilson chef's stellar cooking.  
Julie sat next to Alex, across from Carrie, and dug in. Carrie shot Luke another knowing glance as she sipped her coffee, but thankfully refrained from commenting as she introduced her friends to Nick and Reggie. There was silence for a beat, broken only by the sound of teenagers eating.

"So," Carrie said to her friends. "What do we feel like doing today?"

"I feel like resting isn't an option," Julie said wryly, taking a sip of juice.

"Nope."

"I wouldn't mind finding a skate park," Willie offered. "Be nice to skate for a while without worrying that someone will arrest me."

Alex choked on his water. "Excuse me, did you say arrested?!"

Willie shrugged nonchalantly. "The charges didn't stick. They had no proof that monkey had anything to do with me."

Alex muttered a small, "that's not... okay," while Julie rubbed his back soothingly and Luke was DEFINITELY not jealous of the shirt Alex was wearing.

Wow.

For a song writer, Luke sure knew how to make things creepy.

He tuned back in as Bobby woke up and realized what was going on. "No, Carrie. Absolutely not."

Luke scrambled to figure out what was going on as Carrie set her jaw. "It's my house too, Robert. You can't just keep me out of a whole section."

"Watch me, Carolina."

Nick whistled. "Uh oh, full names. Anyone want to take bets?"

"My money is on Carrie," Flynn said without looking up, absorbed in her strawberry pancakes.

"Mine too," Alex said, grinning. Bobby broke eye contact with his sister to give the drummer a betrayed look.

"Dude, what the heck?!"

"Carrie scares me more than you ever could, dude. I have anxiety, not a death wish."

Carrie pretended to wipe away a tear. "That's the nicest thing you've ever said to me, Alex."

Alex shot her finger guns.

Julie cleared her throat and gave Bobby a beseeching smile. "Please, Bobby? It’s been a tough few months. I could use the distraction."

Bobby groaned and dropped his head to his arms. "You fight dirty, Molina. Fine, you guys can watch band practice."

Julie high fived Willie across the table, grinning, and Luke felt a soft smile travel over his face at her obvious delight.

Then Bobby's words registered, and his smile slipped. No, this was fine. All he had to do was play a flawless rehearsal in front of the angel gracing him with her presence. Right. 

No pressure.

He was going to need more coffee.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed! Comments and kudos make my day, but not required :)


	6. “Hey, what’s going on?” “I’m so gay.”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alternative chapter title: “He’s room temperature oatmeal.”
> 
> The band rehearses, Willie has gay panic, and Luke faces his fear of crying girls.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: mentions of death, mentions of cancer.
> 
> Songs mentioned: Now or Never by... Sunset Curve? Idk, every time I watch it I get distracted by the floofy hair. Also Bright by Julie and the Phantoms with special guest performance by Reggie's AMAZING necklace. Also Finally Free by Julie and the Phantoms, featuring Luke's Lovesick Puppy looks.

The band used a spare room on the opposite end of the house from Trevor’s office, according to Nick. Over breakfast, Julie quietly observed the twins needle each other affectionately, briefly feeling a pang of longing for her brother. They had been united in grief, in trying to help their father pick up the pieces after their mom, and it was weird for her to be so far away. Privately, she resolved to FaceTime them soon.

She spent the rest of the meal watching with no small amount of amusement as Willie and Alex became more and more flustered with one another. Willie would smile at Alex, and Alex would knock over the nearest object – the syrup, the sugar, almost Julie’s juice. Alex would make a dry comment and Willie would gulp and mutter under his breath – years of experience told her it was most likely him muttering about the audacity of Alex being so cute. When Alex laughed and Willie actually jerked, Flynn met her eye across the table and Julie had to look away or risk bursting out laughing. 

After they finished, Julie helped Reggie to stack plates and return them to the kitchen, while Nick took the two pitchers of juice to return to the fridge and Carrie continued to bully her brother, much to the band’s amusement.

“So, Julie,” Nick said, hopping up on the counter. “How’s New York?”

“Amazing,” Julie gushed as she put cutlery in the dishwasher that, frankly, slightly scared her. “You should come visit, seriously. There’s music everywhere, it’s the heartbeat of the city. You’d love it.”

Reggie put the plates next to her elbow and rolled up the sleeves of his flannel. “Good luck getting Nick on a plane.”

Nick shot him a sour look. “It was ONE TIME, Peters, will you please let it go?”

The boys fell to amicable bickering, not unlike Carrie and Flynn, and Julie grinned to herself. Before New York, Nick had been her friend, and she had worried before leaving that he wouldn’t have a group to fall in with when all three his closest friends were leaving. It seemed she had worried in vain, because as Nick flicked soapy water at Reggie and Reggie retaliated with a dishcloth to the face, she could see how happy the band made him.

“So how did you end up with Sunset Curve?” Julie asked, closing the dishwasher with her hip. 

“Bobby had to miss a show,” Nick said, hopping down and walking with Julie as Reggie said something about snacks and went to dig in a cupboard. “It was super last minute, and the guys were struggling to find someone to do rhythm for Now or Never. Reggie and I got paired for an assignment in music together, so I filled in, and now I’m their back up if anything goes wrong.”

By the time he was finished speaking, they had arrived at the rehearsal spot, a room with floor to ceiling windows with thin gauzy curtains. A drum kit was set up on a platform, a red bass guitar was on its own stand to one side, and three guitars stood in a line to the right of the drums – one white, one blue, and one acoustic. Slightly further away stood Nick’s baby blue electric beside a red electric, and he broke from Julie to go tune and plug in his amps.

Julie made her way to the couch, where Bobby and Luke stood. Bobby and Carrie were sniping at each other, and Luke was barely concealing his laughter, though Julie couldn’t tell if it was at her friend or at his. Alex emerged from a side room, clapping his hands, and the siblings broke off their argument, though not without Carrie throwing her brother one last rude gesture.

Willie was leaning against the couch, watching Alex as he set up. Julie sat above him, smiling at the smitten look on her friend’s face, and let her fingers reach out to scratch gently at the base of Willie’s neck. “Hey, what’s going on?”

“I’m so gay.”

Julie snorted. “We knew that already, sweetie. I’m fairly sure that phrase is said at least seven times a day by each of us.”

Willie looked up at her beseechingly as Carrie and Flynn sat next to her. “No, Julie-bear, you don’t understand. I’m so gay it’s causing problems.”

Carrie nodded knowingly. “Gay panic for Alex. It’s common, Willie, don’t worry.”

“How common?”

“Between Luke and Alex, they were responsible for the gay awakening of every non straight guy in middle school, according to Nick.”

Julie grinned. “And the girls were your fault, I assume.”

Carrie pretended to brush lint off her shoulder. “You say fault, I say benevolent privilege.”

Flynn laughed as Reggie entered the room, carrying several packets. He dropped them on the coffee table in front of the girls, winking at Flynn flirtatiously and then Willie too, for good measure, before grabbing his bass. Alex counted them off and the boys exploded into motion.

Now or Never was the kind of song that made her understand the muted palette of the room – the song put so much life and colour into the world, the rhythm going through her bones and in her heartbeat, and to do it with color around took away the full effect. Julie watched Luke get into the dance, Reggie jumping in place, Alex getting lost in the music with a blissful look that made Willie swallow loudly. 

The boys ran through it three times – once with Luke and Bobby, once with Bobby and Nick, and once with Luke and Nick. By the third run through, Julie could see the contemplative look on Carrie’s face as she picked apart the music, thinking it through like a choreographer.

“Bright next?” Alex asked, sipping from his water bottle. Luke made a face.

“I need to workshop Bright again. Something is missing.”

The four other members of the band let out synchronized groans. Carrie shot her brother an enquiring look.

“Luke is never happy with a song,” Bobby explained, pouting at his friend. “He’s had Bright and Finally Free both done for weeks, but every time we play them, there’s ‘something missing’.”

“Because there is something missing, man!” Luke groaned. “Alex, back me up here.”

Alex rose his hands to shoulder height. “I am neutral. I am beige. I am Switzerland.”

“He’s room temperature oatmeal,” Reggie supplied helpfully.

After giving the bass player a judgmental look, Luke turned back to his audience.

“Look, we’ll play them for you, and you can tell us if you can figure it out.”

Nick whistled. “The famous Luke Patterson is willing to share his artistic genius?”

Luke shot Nick the same obscene gesture Carrie had given Bobby, but with a lot more affection behind it. “I’m frustrated, man. Even the greatest song writers had help sometimes.”

_“Don’t be scared to ask for help, mija. Even the greatest songwriters need help sometimes.”_

Julie shot to her feet, interrupting whatever Nick was replying with, and rushed out of the room.

**********************************************************************************

Luke watched the cloud of hair disappear behind the door, hearing her sneakers hit the ground, and felt nothing but pure confusion. He didn’t understand. Julie had seemed to be enjoying watching them – when Nick had taken his spot for lead guitar and Reggie had taken his vocals, he had tried to watch her inconspicuously, watching as she nodded her head to the beat, tapped her foot, and occasionally knocked shoulders with Flynn with a laugh. Why did she leave?

He turned to the girls as Reggie voiced his question. Carrie and Flynn had a silent discussion with their eyes before Flynn nodded and Carrie turned back to them. “Julie lost her mom last year.”

“Did she find her again?”

“Not like that, Reggie. Aunt Rosa passed away.”

Nick stumbled, and even Bobby looked shocked. The color slowly drained from Alex’s face.

“Aunt Rosa died?”

Willie shot to his feet and put his arm around Alex when the drummer began to sway. Willie led him to the couch, getting him to sit with his head between his knees as Flynn slipped out, most likely to find Julie. 

“How?” Nick demanded, stumbling to sit next to his friend. Luke was never more aware of the distance he had – the cavern of grief that separated him and Reggie from Alex, Nick and Bobby. They had known Julie and her family, knew her mom, and this was something personal to them. 

“It was cancer,” Carrie replied softly. “It was a super rare kind – only like a hundred other people in the world have ever had it. She didn’t suffer, Alex, I promise. It was fast.”

“Why did Julie run out?”

Thank goodness for Reggie. Kind, sweet, protective Reggie, who wanted to know how Luke messed up so they could keep it from happening again. It had to have been something Luke said – Julie had been fine, right before he opened his stupid mouth. 

Willie spoke up. “Julie and her mom were really close. Sometimes something someone says or does will remind her of her mom and she gets overwhelmed and needs a few minutes. There’s no way to predict it, but we noticed it has to do with music most of the time.”

Oh hell. 

Luke’s entire life was music. He breathed music, had it in his veins. There was no way he was going to be able to keep from talking about it the whole of Spring Break. 

Nick was talking, something about treatment and people telling them when things happened, and Carrie was saying something back in a hard voice, but all Luke could think was that he needed to apologize. Slipping his guitar back on its stand, he slipped out of the room.

Okay, first problem. The Wilson mansion was enormous. Where did he even begin to look for Julie and Flynn? 

Apparently, his game plan was pick a direction and hope. He chose left, winding his way towards the pool. As he approached, he couldn’t help but feel like the universe was throwing him an apologetic bone after the nightmare of the club the night before when he heard voices coming from outside, and he stepped through the open door.

Julie was sitting on one of the loungers, Flynn’s arm around her. Luke took a second to appreciate Flynn’s rainbow pajama shorts and dinosaur top, a stark contrast to Julie, who was at least dressed. They were talking softly, but thankfully not crying, so he figured it was safe to approach.

Better give a warning though. Last time he came upon someone emotional without warning, Alex had thrown a drum stick so hard at him it almost took out his eye. Luke carefully cleared his throat so the girls knew he was there. 

Julie’s head shot up, and Luke had enough time to register that her eyes were bloodshot behind her glasses, before Flynn stepped in front of her best friend protectively. Luke held up his hands.

“I just came to apologize,” he blurted out. Flynn was a good half a foot shorter than him, but she gave off such chaotic energy that he genuinely feared for his life whenever he met her eye. “I didn’t mean to say anything bad.”

Julie rose to her feet, putting a calming hand on Flynn’s shoulder. “Thank you, Luke. I appreciate it. I’m okay now.”

Luke nodded and rubbed at the back of his neck. “Do you guys want a minute?”

Flynn said yes at the same time Julie said no, and both girls started laughing.

“I’ll go get us some drinks,” Julie compromised, squeezing her friend’s hand. “Meet you back at the practice?”

Flynn nodded, gave Luke warning eyes, and left them alone. Luke felt his nerves abate somewhat, before Julie smiled at him and he had an abrupt feeling of de ja vu. He had seen that same smile before; he was sure of it.

“We’ve met before, right?”

Julie raised an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”

Luke could have kicked himself. “That sounded less creepy in my head, I’m sorry. You just seem really familiar?”

Her smile returned as she led the way to the kitchen. “You mean before I moved to New York? It is possible. Carrie had me over a lot, and you seem familiar too.”

He nodded. “Right. That explains it. So, what are we grabbing for the others?”

They entered the kitchen. “Depends on if you plan on singing again. If you do, water, probably. Although I know Flynn will take soda.”

He gave a salute and opened the industrial size fridge to grab her requests. “Gotcha. So, I have a question for you, if that’s cool?”

Luke heard the tension in her voice when Julie answered. “Yes?”

“Reggie is dying to know if Flynn and Carrie are a thing.”

A surprised laugh burst out of her as he turned to hand her Flynn’s requested soda. “Flynn and Carrie? Huh. Well, there may have been a time when one of them considered it, and goodness knows there is a lot of very questionable tension between them, but I don’t think it would work. They’re both so…”

“Yeah,” he agreed, understanding. “Either it’ll be power couple of the century or the two of them will cause a nuclear winter.”

Julie grinned as they exited the room. “Yeah, basically.”

They walked back to the practice room in companionable silence. It was… nice. Peaceful. Luke relished it – he hadn’t had a lot of peace in the past few months.

When they entered, it was clear both Nick and Alex had shed a few tears over the news Carrie delivered, but neither was trying to abandon practice, so Luke did the only thing he could think to – offer them each a new water. Alex took his with a quiet thank you, and Nick nodded.

“So,” Julie said, collapsing next to Willie and dislodging Nick affectionately. “I believe I was promised a new song?”

Luke smiled encouragingly at Nick and Alex. “You guys up for a run through?”

Nick nodded, standing determinedly and holding a hand out to Alex. “For Aunt Rosa.”

Alex smiled at his friend and nodded. “For Aunt Rosa.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed. Kudos and comments make my day, but not required - I'm having fun subjecting you all to my fluffy story.


	7. “This seems to be the day for full names, isn’t it?” “Stay out of this, Nicholas.”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group finds what's wrong with Bright, pizza is eaten, and Luke drives everyone to the beach.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No trigger warnings as far as I can tell, but let me know if I missed anything please

“You need a higher voice.”

Julie turned to Willie. “You think?”

He nodded, pointing. “Reggie, you’re doing great, and Luke has a good range, but you guys need a soprano to really sell it. Layers, man.”

“There’s something missing in the instruments too,” Flynn piped up, accidentally tugging on Carrie’s hair and making her hiss. “You guys are all so heavy. You need something light to bring a delicate side in.”

Bobby wiped his hair out of his eyes and frowned. “Sunset Curve isn’t exactly about delicacy, Volvo.”

“Volvo?”

“Long story,” Flynn and Bobby said in chorus. Julie snorted in amusement. 

“She’s right though,” she said, turning back to the guitarist. “That bit where you and Reggie sing together is great, but you’re keeping it really low. The song is about getting help from your friends, having success together, right?”

Luke nodded, his expression far away. “You’re right. Something light, but not wind. Put it with the bridge and the first verse.”

He scrambled for a notebook and pen, writing the changes with jerky movements. Julie rose to her feet, curious to see what he had written.

“Oh my gosh, your handwriting is awful.”

The boys burst out laughing, though there was affection there. 

“Yeah, we call it Luke Patterson Chicken Scratch,” Alex said, looking happier. “We don’t get songs from him until he types them for us.”

“Yeah, yeah, rag on me,” Luke muttered. “It’s messy because my brain moves faster than my hands, okay?”

Julie smiled. “Have you thought of piano? Or keyboard?”

He pointed his pen at her. “That’s exactly right. Keys are what it needs. Do you play?”

She felt her smile slip just an inch, and could almost feel her friends tensing behind her, but she soldiered through.

“No, I don’t play. I’m in the art stream at school.”

Nick, Alex and Bobby all looked confused, but Carrie shot them effective warning looks. Like everyone else who was on the receiving end of one of those, they quietly chose life instead, keeping their silence.

“I can try it?” Reggie offered. Julie went to sit as Reggie and Luke began debating chord progressions. Willie rubbed her arm soothingly and Flynn squeezed her knee. Carrie, stuck on the ground with Flynn’s partially completed braid, patted Julie’s foot, the only place she could reach.

While Reggie argued with Luke, the other boys of Sunset Curve came to sit with them and help themselves to snacks.

“Jules, when did you stop playing?” Nick asked softly.

Julie felt her face tense again. “After… after my mom…”

Bobby nodded, holding up a hand. “We get it, baby Molina, no need to continue.”

“Hey, I haven’t been baby Molina for twelve years, excuse me.”

Bobby grinned fondly. “How is the man of the house?”

Julie updated the three boys on her brother and his activities, which moved onto talking about Nick’s dads and how they were doing – Carlos had idolized Chad growing up, wanting to be a ball player like him, while Julie had bonded with Ryan and Nick’s aunt Sharpay. 

By the time they were done rehashing everything Julie had seen on Instagram, Reggie and Luke appeared to have come to an agreement about the song, but it was also approaching midday. By majority vote, the groups broke to get lunch.

“Pizza?” Reggie asked as the group of teens trekked to the living room and collapsed on couches. “I don’t feel like cooking.”

Luke snorted. “Reginald, you haven’t cooked a day in your life.”

Reggie stuck his tongue out at Luke. “Neither have you, Lucas, so back off.”

Nick snorted. “This seems to be the day for full names, isn’t it?”

“Stay out of this, Nicholas.”

Carrie pulled out her phone. “I’ll order pizza, but we’re getting out the house afterwards. Beach?”

Willie perked up. “Do you still have that surfboard you were talking about?”

Julie watched with amusement as Alex went stiff when Carrie confirmed. 

Amidst pizza orders being yelled at Carrie, Julie quietly leaned towards Alex. “You know, you’re welcome to join us if you want.”

He shook his head violently. “No, I shouldn’t. It’s a bad idea for me to go with you guys to the beach.”

“And why is that, exactly?”

Alex spluttered for a few seconds, before pointing an accusing finger at Julie. “You are meant to be my friend and you are not being very friendly right now.”

“I’m sorry, do you want to try to be friendly with Willie instead? I’m sure he wouldn’t mind.”

“Reggie,” Alex whined in a high-pitched moan, launching himself at the bassist. “Julie is being mean to me. Save me.”

Without looking, Reggie rubbed Alex’s back consolingly. “Okay, buddy, but consider this: I don’t want to.”

The rest of lunch was taken up with an argument between Flynn and Nick about the validity of pineapple on pizza and Bobby scoffing at them both, saying the superior topping was clearly banana, at which point he was subject to eight judgemental stares. After she finished eating, while Reggie finished what remained of her order, Julie hooked her arm with Flynn’s.

“I hope I remembered to pack a swimsuit.”

“If you didn’t, I think I have a spare.”

Julie raised an eyebrow at Carrie. “That’s very kind of you, but I am slightly concerned that our definitions of swimsuit are different.”

Carrie waved a dismissive hand. “Not true. It covers the important bits.”

Both Nick and Luke went red, while Reggie choked on his pizza and Bobby gave them disgusted looks. “Dudes, come on. Stop being a stereotype.”

“That’s bi-phobic!”

“Not everything you don’t agree with is bi-phobic.”

Luke and Carrie pointed accusatory fingers at Bobby. “That’s pan-phobic.”

Bobby threw his hands up dramatically. “You are all impossible.”

A beat of silence. Then…

“I’m pretty sure that’s homophobic,” Willie said mildly, examining his nails. Bobby didn’t respond, just got up and left to the sound of laughter. 

**********************************************************************************

“Dude, I’m telling you,” Luke argued, setting his plate in the dishwasher. “There’s no way we can go to the beach, we have to try Bright again. I think the piano is what it’s been missing.”

“What about the higher voice?” Nick countered. 

Luke waved a dismissive hand. “We’ll do an instrumental run through, just to get our bearings. This could be what’s missing in Finally Free too.”

Reggie pouted. “You guys don’t need me for that though.”

“Take that back right now Reginald Peters, yes we do.” Bobby frowned as he shut the fridge, pulling Reggie into a hug. “You just want to go flirt with cute people at the beach.”

“Duh! There are cute people! And the beach! And puppies! And pizza!”

_“You just ate.”_

Luke tuned out their affectionate bickering, running through Finally Free mentally. While piano would definitely help, there was something else they needed – extra percussion, maybe. A triangle? A tambourine? Something to lift from the second verse, take them just that little bit over the top.

“Hey Luke?” Carrie called. “Can you give us a lift to the beach? You’re the only one with a rack for the surfboard.”

He turned, prepared to grouse at Carrie, and was drawn short.

That was… that was skin.

That was a lot of skin.

That was Willie’s bare chest, to be specific, because he was still pulling on a shirt. While Luke tended to go for musicians, he could appreciate the level of care Willie clearly put into keep in shape. Flynn had said he was a dancer, right? Maybe Luke could ask for tips, make sure he wouldn’t embarrass himself in front of Purple Girl (Rose?) if he saw her again.

“Yeah,” he said a beat later, turning to address Carrie. “Just give me a minute to pull out.”

Carrie, in a short dress over her bikini, shot him a thumbs up and a grateful smile. Flynn approached from behind, launching herself to land on Willie’s back with a war cry, and he let out a loud laugh. Julie, approaching from behind in a purple tank top and silver swim shorts, laughed at the display, throwing her hair into a bun high on her head. 

“I’ll meet you guys in front,” Luke continued, grabbing his keys. His car was parked in the garage, and he took a few minutes to rearrange things, throw out some old wrappers and papers, and carefully take the leather jacket he had been left with the night before and set it in his trunk, out of the way behind his spare guitar case. No way was he risking hurting a work of art like that. After a beat, he found his plaid coat and set it over the top, just to be safe.

He pulled in front of the house, where the girls and Willie were waiting. While Willie helped Luke to get the surfboard set in position, the girls engaged in a complicated game of hand slapping where they tried to push each other over, eventually landing Flynn the winner. This appeared to be to claim shotgun, from her victorious grin.

“Can I plug in my tunes?” she asked, already reaching for the aux cord dangling from Luke’s stereo. He frowned, but let her put it in, and a loud voice emerged.

_“Under the neon lights, I think we might get married in Vegas!”_

Luke grabbed for the volume knob, turning it down before he was deafened. “This is your idea of decent music?!”

“Hey!” three voices from the back seat said, offended. 

“What do you have against The Vamps, dude?” Flynn followed up. 

“Nothing, I just think there’s better actual music to listen to.”

“Like what?!”

Luke thought about it for a second. “You got any 90’s rock?”

Willie groaned. “Julie-bear, I owe you ten dollars.”

Julie grinned, meeting Luke’s eyes in the rear-view mirror. “It’s your Rush shirt.” Luke would argue, but to be fair, he was wearing his favourite Rush shirt under his denim jacket, so she had a point. 

“I have Jon Bellion,” Flynn announced, pulling her Spotify, “and some dude named Jeremy Shada. Your choice, rocker wannabe.”

Luke frowned at her. “Just for that, I’m saying Jon Bellion. You got Guillotine?”

The rest of the drive to the beach was Willie, Carrie and Flynn yelling the song at the top of their lungs while Julie nodded her head along to it. Luke sang quietly, keeping most of his focus on the road.

He definitely was not trying to figure out why Julie wasn’t singing.

Nope. Not him. Responsible driver, right here. His total focus on the road.

… But seriously, who doesn’t sing to Guillotine?

When the electronics faded out, Flynn transitioned to Catching Fire, letting the volume drop slightly so that conversation would be possible. While she and Willie discussed surfing techniques, Carrie sang softly, and Julie smiled and swayed from side to side.

“Not a big singer?” he asked at a traffic light, trying to be more sensitive. Flynn stiffened, but with a hand to her shoulder from Carrie, the tension melted away. Julie’s smile was slightly forced, but there was no ill will in it.

Or there was and Luke couldn’t read emotions.

But he preferred option one.

“I don’t have a very good voice,” Julie said nonchalantly. “Oh, hey, Willie, can you get me one of those pin wheel things?”

Willie looked at where someone was selling purple foil pinwheels on the beach and frowned. “Why? What are you going to do with it?”

Julie’s eyes sparkled with mischief. “Doesn’t matter, because you owe me ten bucks.”

Willie groaned and let his head drop forwards, while the girls laughed. Luke smiled at the comfortable vibe he felt – it felt like the one he had with the boys, closer to siblings than just friends.

“Okay, we’re here!” he announced thirty seconds later, pulling into an empty spot. “Be responsible beach goers – recycle, keep your trash to your talking, use sunscreen, and stay away from seagulls with one eye.”

Flynn paused in getting out. “Why the ones with one eye?”

“Because they did something to lose the other one,” Luke said, as though it was obvious. “Or they belong to a pirate, and we don’t need pirates overtaking LA.”

“Valid,” Carrie allowed. “Come on, Flynn, let’s find a decent spot before they’re all gone.”

Willie got out to remove the surfboard, leaving Julie collecting her bag. She slung it over one shoulder and smiled at Luke.

“Thanks for dropping us off, Luke. I hope you get Bright to work right.”

He could almost physically feel his body start to vibrate like an excited puppy under her thanks. Reggie would have teased him, saying Luke tended to bounce when pretty people smiled at him, but Reggie also thought room temperature oatmeal was a valid descriptor for a person, so Luke was going to take that with a pinch of salt.

“You’re welcome,” Luke got out after swallowing. “Enjoy your deech bay. I mean beach day!”

Julie let out a laugh, a full-bodied expression of amusement that was somehow the most satisfying thing Luke had ever heard. All the girls that hung around him and the boys tended to laugh like they were scared to make too much noise with it. Julie, even in her small laugh, seemed to hold nothing back, giving her amusement a chance to find its own way out of her body.

Luke cringed. Yeah, that was a metaphor he didn’t need to write down. 

“Enjoy your band practice. Bye Luke!”

As she got out the car, her hair swung around, leaving a pleasant scent in its wake. He inhaled deeply, smiling as he plugged in his own phone and found his favourite Spotify playlist, starting out with F.N.T.

It was only when he was almost back to the mansion that he realised the scent was vanilla, startlingly familiar. Purple Girl (Rose? Probably Rose. He was going to assume her name was Rose) had smelled like vanilla. But then again, so did his mom after she baked, and so did his lab partner in chemistry (Tara? Tori? Luke really needed to start learning people’s names) and so did the guy who he had crushed on for three semesters that worked in the library. It was a common scent, after all.

Luke let the smell move to the back of his mind as he got out the car and got ready to return to the music.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed!
> 
> Songs mentioned:  
> Bright by Julie and the Phantoms  
> Finally Free by Julie and the Phantoms  
> Married in Vegas by The Vamps  
> Guillotine by Jon Bellion  
> They didn't listen to Jeremy but if they had, I'm thinking Uh Oh  
> Catching Fire by Lauv  
> FNT by Semisonic


	8. “You guys are horrible friends and I hope you both develop pizza allergies.”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our favorite performing arts students have their beach day, Luke rags (UNNECESSARILY AND ENTIRELY UNFAIRLY) on Taylor Swift, and I throw in more characters from the show while Luke and Julie remain oblivious.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second to last chapter of what I have prepared ahead of time. Wish me luck - I have lectures now.

“Luke seems familiar,” Julie told Carrie as they laid out their towels. “But I can’t place it.”

Carrie laid out and whipped off her dress, leaving her in a white bikini, before using it as a pillow. “He’s been around my brother a few years, I think, but they only started hanging out a lot right before high school. He brought Reggie around then too.”

Julie nodded. “That would make sense. Hey, did you see how red Alex went when Willie talked about surfing?”

The girls spent the rest of the afternoon talking about the two boys, joined by Flynn when she got tired of trading off the surfboard with Willie. When he eventually returned, halfway through the afternoon, he and Julie were elected to get ice cream for the group. He staked the board firmly in the sand, tugged on his shirt, and the friends set off together. 

“So, Julie-bear, how do you feel?”

Julie considered it. “I think… better. I’m still upset about the jacket, but having distraction helps.”

A small smile graced Willie’s face. “Yeah. Distraction.”

They arrived at the ice cream stand, and Julie took a moment to nudge his arm teasingly. “Speaking of distractions, you and Alex seemed pretty distracted in one another this morning. How’s that going?”

Willie flushed and busied himself finding his wallet in Julie’s bag. “Its… going. He is cute, you know? And talented.”

Julie smiled. “He’s a great guy, Willie.”

“What if he isn’t into guys?”

Julie wanted to smack him over the head, but that was a bad way of processing emotions, as her Tia kept reminding her. “I have known Alexander Mercer almost as long as I’ve known Carrie, and I can 100% guarantee you he is not interested in girls.”

Willie seemed surprised as they put in their ice cream order and waited for them to be made up. “You’ve known Alex that long?”

“Yeah, he and Bobby have been friends since they were like five. Their moms were friends, but then Carrie’s parents got divorced, so Alex’s mom was all oh no, we can’t go near them, divorce might be catching, because Alex’s mom is weird.”

Willie grinned as they took the ice creams and carefully navigated the sand, and Julie continued. 

“They started messing around with instruments at the same time as us. I don’t know how Alex got permission to keep going to Bobby’s house, but I think it’s because Trevor keeps drums so Alex’s family wouldn’t have to put up with them. Alex’s family is… they’re a lot.”

“Talking about psycho Mrs. Mercer?” Flynn asked, accepting her ice cream. “That woman doesn’t have the common sense of a pigeon, but she sure did have a pretty son.”

Carrie laughed as she took her ice cream and Julie flopped into the sand, Willie soon after. “And a talented dancer too. Don’t objectify Alex to his face.”

“Excuse me, I am objectifying his arms and height too. I’m an equal opportunity objectifier.”

After ice cream, Willie agreed to go shopping with Julie the following day as they packed up their things and Carrie pulled out her phone to call Luke for a ride.

“Nothing much to do on a Sunday, anyways. I can’t believe we have to go home on Thursday again.”

Flynn put a gentle hand on Willie’s forearm. “Problems with your foster dad again?”

He shook his head, the end of his braid falling over one shoulder. “Nah, stuff with Caleb is fine. I just feel like Spring Break should be longer.”

Carrie returned to hear the end of his sentence. “Amen to that. Who has shotgun?”

Flynn was out of the running since she won for the way down, and Willie insisted on being in the back for his legs. Carrie went up against Julie, crowing victoriously as she won, just as Luke’s car pulled up.

“Patterson taxi services,” Luke announced, popping the door open. “How was the beach, ladies?”

“Windy. How was rehearsal?”

“Loud.”

That appeared to be the only conversation they were going to be allowed, as Carrie plugged her aux cable in and the others squeezed into the back seat, Julie directly behind Luke. As Carrie pulled up a Dirty Candi song, Luke grimaced at Julie in the rear view, and she had to hide her snickering. Luke appeared to value his life more than his stereo, although the tortured looks continued until Wow faded out to be replaced by Paper Rings.

“Oh, turn it up!” Flynn encouraged. Luke let out an audible moan.

“Okay, Mr. Superiority Complex, what’s wrong with Taylor?” Carrie demanded. Julie tended to agree – Taylor had a song for everyone’s taste, how could Luke not like her?

“She needs to pick a genre,” he grumbled. “Every time Reggie says he wants to listen to her, it’s a toss up on country, pop and indie.”

“Not a country fan?” Willie asked as Taylor began to sing of shiny things. Luke shook his head.

“I respect it as a genre, but personally if I never heard another steel guitar being twanged, I would die a very happy man.”

“To die a happy man, you’d have to be a man first,” Carrie said drily. That sparked a new argument between them, and Julie watched with fond exasperation. It seemed Luke was around often when Carrie called home, so she had the same kind of relationship with him that she did with her own brother – she would throw hands for him on sight, but he could never actually know that, lest word get out that Carrie Wilson has a heart. 

At the Wilsons, the group got out, Carrie tossing her hair dramatically. Julie lingered behind after she closed the rear door, but Luke remained behind the wheel.

“You aren’t staying?”

He shook his head. “If I’m gone too many nights in a row, my parents freak out. Better not to stoke that particular fire, trust me.”

Julie nodded, as though she had any idea what he was talking about. 

“Anyways, I’m just waiting for Reg and Alex so I can drop them off.”

“You the only one with a car?”

“Bobby technically has one, but he hasn’t passed his test yet. Nick drives his dad’s old car sometimes when Ryan doesn’t mind. Reg has his license, but he can’t afford a car right now, and Alex hasn’t got his license yet.”

She nodded. “You know, most people in New York don’t have cars. It’s a cultural shock when you hear it for the first time.”

He opened his mouth to reply, but before he could do more than take a deep breath, a voice emerged from the door behind her. 

“Julie!”

She smiled. “Hey Reggie. Did you guys get the song right?”

“You were right, all it needed was piano. You’re an angel.” Reggie slung an arm around her shoulders affectionately. “I’ll come make you something after tutoring tomorrow.”

“You’re getting tutored?”

Luke shook his head. “My man here is a genius with numbers and formulas. He’s our top STEM student in the county.”

Reggie ducked his head. “Aww, Luke, you remembered.”

“You almost hit me with the award. It haunts my nightmares.”

Alex emerged, flustered, and waved. “Hey Julie-bean. Was the beach good?”

“Yeah, Willie caught some serious waves.” Just as Julie had hoped, the information made Alex flush a deep red. 

“We should go!” he squeaked out, several octaves higher than normal. Reggie snickered, his arm around Julie’s shoulders bouncing with it, and Luke seemed to physically be in pain holding back his laughter. “Good seeing you, Julie!”

“You too, Alex. Hey, we’ll see you before we go back to New York, right?”

Luke nodded. “We’re busking tomorrow afternoon down by the pier with Bobby. You should come have a look.”

“I’d love to.”

“I’d love to get home sometime soon,” Reggie sang, sliding into shotgun. “Bye, Julie!”

She waved at them as she turned to enter the house, a lingering smile on her face.

**********************************************************************************

“Luke has a crush,” Reggie announced, as though it was breaking news.

“And the sky is blue,” Alex replied drily. “Although I am surprised, I thought you only noticed people who were, you know.”

Luke waited for the rest of the statement, but it didn’t come. He shot his friend a confused look.

“Who are what?”

“Musical.”

Luke felt himself blushing. “Dude, I have more than one personality trait.”

Reggie held his hand in the air, tilting it from side to side. Luke smacked it down, groaning. 

“You guys are horrible friends and I hope you both develop pizza allergies.”

They bickered back and forth all the way to Alex being dropped off at the corner and Reggie getting out at his driveway. The trip back to the Patterson residence seemed quieter than usual – it wasn’t often Nick would choose his dad’s old car, but he had been giving Carrie what he probably thought were subtle looks through rehearsal, and he had seemed far too casual when he mentioned hanging out later than usual at Bobby’s. 

Luke stayed quiet through dinner, said a quiet goodnight to his parents, and crashed early. He sat with his back against the wall, staring at his open journal absently, waiting for something to come to him. The last thing he had written had been too private to share with the band right now, something he’d written when staying in Bobby’s garage was more appealing than being at home for three nights until his parents had got hold of Trevor and Luke had been forced to come home. 

He forced that thought from his mind, focusing on the page in front of him. Something was coming. He could feel it. Something about motion and waves, the sway of hips and the feeling of a spaceship.

When he had filled a page with half-baked ideas that he would have Reg and Alex look through in the morning, he found himself frowning. Looking through what he had written, he wasn’t sure if he was writing about Rose and the way she slayed him at the club, or about Julie and her quiet brand of personal sunshine.

This was getting way too complicated.

Sadly, a night’s rest didn’t help. Over breakfast, he decided to try something novel for him.

“Hey, Mom?”

Emily Patterson looked up from her breakfast cautiously. “Yes?”

“I’m having,” gulp, “girl troubles.”

Emily dropped her spoon, cringing at the loud clatter. “Oh. Oh my. Um, what’s going on?”

Luke told her a heavily edited version of the story, making it sound like Rose had been someone sitting in on a band rehearsal, a friend of Carrie’s. Emily’s mouth went small at the mention of the band, but it was a lot better than her reaction would have been if she knew he was going to an illegal club with a fake ID.

When he was done, his mom tilted her head consideringly.

“Well, dear, it doesn’t sound like an overly optimistic situation either way. You say Julie returns to New York next Thursday, and if Carrie can’t help you get in touch with Rose, all you can do with that is give her the jacket and trust Carrie to give it back.”

He frowned into his cereal. Luke had been hoping his mom would have some kind of magical solution for him, but it seemed she was drawing a short straw right now.

“Thanks, Mom. I’m going to go, otherwise I’ll be late for work.”

“Okay, honey.”

Luke worked mornings at a small independent music store over breaks, and two afternoons a week and weekends during the semester. The place was laid back, and he got to try out new guitars whenever he wanted with the excuse of tuning them. His boss, a woman by the name of Victoria, was always gushing about her niece and how he should meet the musical prodigy she was, but she also brought leftovers whenever she could and let him stay late in the break room whenever he was having a tough time at home, which was frequently.

She was bustling behind the counter when he arrived. “Mijo! I’ve been looking for you. The order for the violins finally arrived, and those two guitars and the new cello, and I need you to set them up for me.”

He nodded and hung up his sleeveless hoodie. “On it, Tia.” For reasons unknown to him, Victoria flat out insisted that he call her Tia, extending the same command to Reggie and Alex whenever they came in. For Alex, who worked at the coffee store directly across from them, it was more often, but Reggie had a sixth sense for free food and often showed up after tutoring to raid Victoria’s cooking. 

His shift passed relatively quickly. After setting up the instruments, he helped someone get their guitar restrung and talked someone else out of buying a violin that was far too small for them. Coming to the last half hour of shift, though, something more interesting happened – Carrie arrived, dragging Julie and Willie with her.

“I should have gone with Flynn,” Julie groaned. “Why won’t you let me go back to her?”

“Because I need a new set of strings and it’ll take five minutes to get while she orders coffee. Why won’t you be like Willie?”

“Willie is a man, for one thing.”

Luke cleared his throat before the bickering could continue. “Hi guys, how can I help?”

“Luke!” Surprising him, Carrie shot him an affectionate grin, though it turned teasing when he smiled at Julie. “I need new strings for my bass and my acoustic, can you help?”

Luke had vague memories of Bobby being mad when Carrie took the better acoustic guitar with her to New York when she moved, so it made sense that they needed replacing. He got the required items and rang them up.

“Anything else?”

Julie, who had been examining the baby grand in the middle of the shop, turned like she had been caught doing something awful. Willie, by contrast, was snapping a photo of a ukulele with a pride flag painted on the back, and Carrie straightened from where she had been considering picks.

“Not for me. Julie-bean? Willie?”

Both her friends shook their heads. Luke finished the transaction, but instead of exiting, Carrie leaned on the counter.

“We may as well wait for Flynn here. She said she wouldn’t be long.”

“Did she go to the shop across the way?”

Julie nodded, and Luke grinned. 

“You can probably get comfortable then. Alex is on shift, and he says the lunch crowd is worse than the morning one. My boss has just gone out, so you can stay until I switch shifts.”

Carrie shrugged and wandered to the bass guitars, taking one and slinging it across her body. Her fingers moved through the notes with expert precision as she started to play something soft, and Willie gave her an envious look.

“Man, I wish I could play an instrument.”

“You don’t play?”

Willie shook his head, dropping to one of the stools next to Julie. “I’m studying art, with a minor in public relations. Music doesn’t like coming out of my hands, but I’m a dancer, so it’s okay.”

“Music can come from anyone,” Julie argued, before Luke could. “You just need to find a good teacher.”

“Bold, coming from the art student,” Willie replied teasingly. Before Julie could reply, the door burst open.

“I smell food! Oh, hey Julie.”

“Hi Reggie,” she said, standing and smiling at him. “How was tutoring?”

“Good, I think the little guy finally gets the quadratic formula.” Reggie ran his hands through his hair distractedly. “Luke, seriously, feed me or we can’t busk.”

“Okay, okay, let me see what Tia brought in.” 

Luke disappeared into the back room and found the leftovers for the day. It was something he knew he would never be able to pronounce, but it smelled amazing, as Reggie loudly announced as he dug into it. 

Flynn arrived then, Alex in tow, and then Luke was handing the store off to his replacement clerk Fuego, who shot Willie an enquiring glance before seeing the look on Alex’s face, and then the group popped out of the store like the cork on a champagne bottle, and in all the mess Luke didn’t have time to question it.

Why would Julie say music can come from anyone if she didn’t make it herself?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Songs mentioned:
> 
> Wow by Dirty Candi (ft. Alex's stellar imitation dance moves)  
> Paper Rings by Taylor Swift


	9. “You’re unnecessarily complicated, Bobbert.”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group has lunch together, I throw in an Owen reference and three musical references (bonus fake internet points to whoever finds them), and busking commences.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi :) last prewritten chapter but that means nothing, I will probably stay up writing all night because who needs a consistent sleep schedule, right?
> 
> Trigger warnings for grief and a flashback, though they aren't immersive
> 
> Am I blatantly giving Willie my hatred of jellybeans and Reggie my taste in country music? Of course I am, as any self respecting fan does

Despite the fact that he had inhaled the entire Tupperware of food, Reggie claimed he was still hungry, so the group made their way to the food court. While everyone divvied up to find their preferred food, Julie and Willie separated to get sushi – neither of them felt up to the deep-fried monstrosities their friends were getting.

Standing in line, Willie dropped an arm around Julie. “You okay?”

Julie reluctantly took the lower lip she had been gnawing on out of her mouth. “Yeah, why?”

“Because in that vintage store we went into you almost started crying when you saw a leather jacket, and then in the music store you gave the baby grand eyes that made me feel like we should have left you two alone for a few hours.”

Despite herself, Julie smiled. “So, the same look you gave Carrie’s surfboard then?”

He laughed, a loud and free sound. Willie always said there was no point muffling amusement, that it just ruined the spontaneity of the moment. Although Willie also thought hooking himself up to cars on public transit while riding his skateboard was a good idea, so maybe some of his philosophies should have been examined.

They stepped forward as Julie spoke.

“It’s my mom’s jacket. I hate myself for losing it and the letter, for getting so caught up in the moment, for letting one dumb moment proving one dumb guy wrong lose me her letter.”

Willie dropped an arm around her shoulders. “I’m sorry, Julie-bear. I know that doesn’t do anything, but it’s the truth.”

She slipped an arm around his waist and squeezed gratefully. “It does more than you know. I just… I really miss her.”

“Remember the time she came to my showcase and lectured Professor Beard on how my use of color was underappreciated?”

Julie smiled. It was difficult for her to remember her mother, to feel anything but intense pain whenever she brought up the memories, but hearing them from other people was starting to get easier, although it sometimes still hit like a punch to the ribs. She let Willie’s words wash over her – Rose had been a staunch supporter of her “adoptive son” as she had declared Willie the moment Julie brought him home for dinner. By the time they had their sushi and were walking back to the assembled group, she was washed with the bittersweet pain of memories that she knew would lose their edge with time. 

“So,” Flynn announced as she sat, her soda cracking open loudly as Alex shot Julie and Willie’s sushi disgusted looks. “We have had our shopping spree, so what’s next on the list?”

“Is it a spree if you’re the only one who bought something?” Alex asked, looking at the pile of bags at Flynn’s feet. Willie let out a chuckle, and Alex turned an interesting shade of red and knocked over the saltshaker.

“I vote we do something fun,” Julie said before Flynn could defend her spending habits to their old friend. “Luke, didn’t you guys say you’d be busking?”

Luke smiled at her as he took a bite of his burger, and Julie felt her heart instantly soften – he had some sauce at the corner of his mouth he hadn’t realised, his hair was ruffled from Reggie, and he was just so soft. How was she meant to stay strong?

_“Mija, love isn’t about being strong, it’s about finding someone who makes you stronger.”_

Flynn noticed the look on Julie’s face and instantly put her arm around her best friend. Knowing the signals, Willie dropped his arm around her shoulder, tugging her into his side, and Carrie pouted for a few seconds before rising to her feet, coming behind Julie, and hugging her from behind. 

“Did I miss the memo for the cuddle pile?” Luke asked, looking at them with amused confusion.

“Cuddle pile, yeah!” 

Julie snorted at Reggie, who threw himself over Luke and Alex’s laps. Alex dropped his slice of pizza back onto his takeaway plate, clutching the bassist whilst swearing colorfully, while Luke laughed and let himself be used as a bed.

“Does this happen a lot?” Willie asked Alex.

“More than what it should. Reggie doesn’t understand that I’m not a human trampoline.”

“Okay but consider this: you’re my bed.”

“I never agreed to that!”

“It’s all in the fine print my man.”

While the boys bickered, Carrie hugged Julie tighter, bending to whisper in her ear. “You okay, Julie-bean?”

Julie nodded. “I will be. Thanks, Care-bear.”

Carrie squeezed her again before going to sit back down. Flynn rubbed Julie’s shoulder, Willie gave her one last hug, before they cautiously let her go. 

“So, what’s with the nicknames?” a new voice announced. Julie smiled at Nick, who seemed to have appeared from nowhere.

“Hey Nick, I was wondering where you and Bobby were.” Sure enough, Bobby had been dragged with, his face glum as he sat beside Alex and Nick took the chair next to Carrie, making them a full (slightly crowded) circle. With the familiarity of someone who has decided he no longer cares about his public perception, Reggie wriggled until his head was in Bobby’s lap, his feet in Luke’s, and his arms stretched out to lay on Nick. Bobby looked down with mingled affection and distaste, not unlike how he looked at Carrie.

“Yeah, I was catching up on homework.” Nick made a distasteful face. “I hate that the music program loads us with so much extra work.” Julie noticed that he was taking great pains not to look head on at Carrie, who was blushing and looking at her food. Julie met Flynn’s eye and had to keep from giggling – it wasn’t often that they saw razor tongue Carrie flustered over someone. Carrie believed in the love them and leave them approach for all her relationships, but this… this for some reason was different.

“Nicknames are Carrie’s fault,” she announced, grinning at the betrayed face Carrie shot her. “She started calling me Julie-bean just before I got my scholarship, and then Alex picked it up.” Julie pointed an accusatory chopstick at the drummer, who pulled a face at her. “Then when we got to New York, Willie heard her, but decided I need to be Julie-bear instead.”

“But Julie-bean makes more sense,” Reggie piped up, finally shifting to get off his bandmates.

Willie pulled a face similar to Alex’s. “I hate jellybeans though. Just after I met Jules, my foster dad got me these jelly bear things and I got totally addicted to them, so it made more sense to call Julie-bear that.”

“That just seems unnecessarily complicated,” Bobby objected, stealing one of his sister’s curly fries. She slapped his hand.

“You’re unnecessarily complicated, Bobbert,” Nick shot back, and Alex laughed. Alex had the best laugh, Julie thought to herself, completely free, like the weight of the world was lifted from his shoulders after a long, hard slog. 

Julie finished her sushi and got to her feet. “I’m going to chuck this in recycling. Did we decide what we’re going to do?”

“The boys and I are busking,” Luke announced. “You guys should join us though?”

“There are cute craft stalls near the beach,” Carrie told her. “You could find something to take home for Carlos?”

“I guess it’s decided then. Meet you guys at the car?”

**********************************************************************************

Nine people was too much for his car, so they divvied up between it and the car Willie had borrowed from Trevor for the day. Luke announced he needed Julie to help him navigate, subtly pushing Alex towards Willie, while Carrie told Nick she had a video she just had to show him. Reggie chose to go with Luke three seconds after Flynn said she wasn’t letting Julie go alone, and Bobby eventually decided he would rather be with Willie, claiming Reggie’s lovesick puppy look was turning his stomach. The boys stashed their instruments in the trunks, before Luke got behind the wheel.

“Are you going to get offended if I put on music?” Julie asked, waving her phone teasingly at him.

Luke grinned. “Nah, but I will judge you forever based on your choice. Choose carefully.”

“Country!” Reggie said helpfully from the back seat where he was buckling in.

“R n B,” Flynn disagreed. 

“Rock, my man, it’s the only way to go.”

They pulled out of the parking lot before Julie made her choice.

“Purely because Reggie has been the nicest to me since we got here, I present my first choice, and you can go suck an egg, Luke.”

The drums and fiddle started, and Luke groaned and smacked his hand against the steering wheel. “You hate me, don’t you? You’re taking actual years off my lifespan right now.”

Julie grinned at him as Reggie sang along to the instrumental section of The Devil Went Down to Georgia, having so much fun that Luke couldn’t help but laugh and pat the beat against the steering wheel. When they pulled up to a traffic light next to Willie, Julie rolled down her window so Flynn and Reggie could yell the last chorus to their friends, who all gave them judgemental stares.

“Fire on the mountain, run boys run!” Flynn shouted. Willie got Alex to roll down the window so they could hear whatever they were listening to.

“All I see is all eyes on me!” Carrie harmonized with herself from the back, grinning as her friends laughed. Alex was having the time of his life, mimicking the dance moves Carrie had to have shown him on YouTube from their last performance, and Flynn and Julie mimicked him with laughter.

Hooting came from behind them, and they gave apologetic waves to the queues as Willie and Luke moved. Thankfully, the trip to the pier took less time, and Julie didn’t get the chance to subject him to more country before they were piling out and he was reaching in his trunk to get the instruments he stashed there. Julie looked with interest as Bobby got his guitar out, all the boys using acoustics. 

“So how does this work?” Flynn asked, falling into step next to Reggie, who vibrated like a puppy. 

“It’s awesome! We set up with the guitars, and Alex uses his sticks on the buckets, and then-“

Reggie continued babbling at Flynn, and to Luke’s surprise didn’t stop him. Instead she… smiled? Fondly? Who was this girl and what did she do with the girl who wanted to maim him the day before?

“You and Reggie both do that,” Julie said with surprise. Luke shot her a confused glance. 

“What?”

“The shaking thing.” When his face didn’t clear, she tried to illustrate, shaking herself slightly as she walked. “Like a puppy wagging his tail when he gets excited.”

“I do not do that!”

“You do,” Alex piped up from behind them, carrying three buckets while Bobby and Nick each had one extra. “It’s a full 85% of your personality.”

“Luke has a personality?” Bobby said skeptically. “Sounds fake but okay.”

Luke reached back to ruffle Bobby’s hair, and he ducked out of the way with a muttered curse, knocking into Nick. Nick shoved back and somehow that became all four boys messing with each other. When Reggie realized he was being left out of the scuffle, he handed his guitar to Flynn and jumped in with an excited yell, getting jostled. Carrie raised her eyebrows, hooked her arms through Julie and Flynn’s, and walked with Willie to the corner of the pier. 

When the band was set up, they bid the girls farewell. Willie had taken out his skateboard and claimed he was fine going up and down the pavement practicing small tricks, though Luke couldn’t help but notice he went up and down where he was in Alex’s full view. Alex, meanwhile, had turned his head determinedly in the other direction, though his eyes flickered out when he thought no one was looking to watch. (Luke, Reggie and Nick were all looking, and grinning at their friend as they did.)

Julie and Carrie both wandered to look at the trinkets on display, and Flynn took out her phone to FaceTime someone – her mom? It sounded like a woman, from the rapid speaking. Luke pulled his head back to the music, pulling his acoustic over his shoulder and beginning to strum.

The band went through their prepared original material, then switched to covers on the fly, often asking tippers what they wanted to hear and obliging. Luke had a particularly entertaining rendition of I Want It That Way, while he and Reggie duetted a woman in her early twenties who, for some reason, requested Breaking Free from Nick's dad's friends, Troy and Gabriella Bolton. Flynn finished her extraordinarily long call right as he finished the last note, and with a grin dropped a dollar into his case.

“A request, milady?” Reggie asked, tipping an imaginary cowboy hat and putting on a truly awful southern accent.

“Do you guys know any Abba?”

Alex clutched a stick to his heart dramatically. “Flynn Carson, you are my personal hero.” Luke felt a grin break out – one of his formative experiences was watching Meryl Streep with Alex and yelling the lyrics at the top of their lungs. Once you do Abba together, you’re bonded for life.

Bobby snorted as Reggie started to strum for Mamma Mia, and Luke began to croon the words at Flynn, who giggled. Willie slid to a stop when Flynn gestured to him, and came over grinning as Luke accused Flynn of dragging him back in.

Reggie took over for the chorus as Willie spun Flynn in a circle and she automatically counterbalanced, and they swayed back and forth. There was nothing romantic about it – it looked like when Nick danced with his little sister at her princess tea parties, to be honest. 

Nick, speaking of, took over and sang at an approaching Carrie, telling her she had no idea how many times he cried over her. Her face broke into a laugh as she got into it, singing with him and going back to back to croon it dramatically at Flynn and Willie. Julie approached and applauded her friends, laughing, as the passing foot traffic stopped to watch Carrie and Nick sing dramatically at one another. Carrie even dragged Flynn and Willie in, doing the push manoeuvre from the second movie. Surprisingly, this had a similar effect – Willie ended up stumbling on the uneven boards of the pier and landed half on Alex’s lap, half on his buckets. 

Willie let a big smile come over his face. “Well, I guess I really fell for you, huh?”

Alex’s response was lost at the groans of their friends, and Julie gave Willie a hand up, grinning. “I know he’s cute, but please William, refrain from squishing my friends.”

She turned to drop her own dollar in the case. Luke gave her a shy smile.

“Any requests?”

“Surprise me.”

He gave Reggie a knowing look, and thankfully his telepathy seemed to FINALLY be kicking in, as Reggie nodded and they began a classic. 

Luke sang to Julie, Reggie sang to Flynn, Nick shot Carrie shy eyes, and Alex mumbled at his buckets and occasionally looked at Willie, while Bobby shot them dry looks of disdain.

“To you, my brown eyed girl,” Luke and Reggie harmonized.

“Sha la la la la la la la la la la di da,” Nick contributed, smiling at Carrie. Luke faced Julie, smiling shyly at her as he sang softly, trying to make her smile. She got flustered instead, grabbed Willie’s hand, and began dancing with him. It was nothing elaborate, more of a two step with their hands crossed between their torsos, until Willie did a fancy kick and Julie copied. The foot traffic stopped watching the boys, even as Reggie sang the chorus softly at Flynn and made her blush, and instead applauded Julie and Willie’s dance.

Nick and Carrie ended up closing out, singing softly at one another to raucous applause from their audience, while Julie and Willie bowed and directed praise at the band. The boys took their bows, before starting up. Willie pulled out a dollar, matched by Carrie, and they muttered to one another for a minute about the song before grinning and whispering their request to Luke. He grinned, tipped the neck of his guitar at them, and began to strum. 

“You can dance,” Carrie and Willie sang at Julie as she burst into giggles. “You can jive, having the time of your life, oh oh oh.”

“See that girl!” Alex piped up, pointing his stick at her.

“Watch that scene,” Flynn sang, gesturing to Julie.

“Digging the dancing queen!” they all sang together. Julie laughed and began to dance with Flynn as her friends serenaded her.

There were a few standout moments, like when Flynn took the opportunity to trail around Reggie and sing “You’re a teaser,” right in his ear and made him gulp, and when Nick shyly sang the chorus at Carrie and made her blush before she was pulled into dancing with Julie. The moment that stuck out though, was when Alex was doing the final drum solo and Flynn launched herself at Willie, who caught her and spun her around.

As the boys packed up and the groups moved to the cars to do drop off, Luke couldn’t stop thinking about it.

He’d seen that before.

It wasn’t possible though.

But he had.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading.
> 
> Songs mentioned:  
> The Devil Went Down to Georgia by The Charlie Daniels Band  
> All Eyes On Me by Dirty Candi ft. Alex's dancing  
> I Want It That Way by The Backstreet Boys  
> Breaking Free from High School Musical  
> Mamma Mia by Abba, though the dance moves are inspired by the number in the second movie  
> Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison  
> Dancing Queen by Abba


	10. "why would you ruin a perfectly good week by starting it with cardio?"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke pouts, Julie bonds, and we see some of our favorite Kenny Ortega characters in a cameo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No trigger warnings, mentions of arguments with parents, mentions of grief.  
> If I missed anything, please let me know so I can update warnings. I wrote this at 2am after being frustrated that I couldn't get anything out yesterday and it fought me every step of the way.

Luke seemed distracted during the walk back to the car, and Julie could not figure out what it was. She tried asking, but he just shrugged her off, leaving her frustrated and walking with Flynn.

"Did you find something for your dad and Carlos?" Carrie asked, seeming aware of the strange tension.

Taking the distraction, Julie nodded and showed her the two packages she had carefully cradled in her sling bag.

"I got Carlos a baseball cap, but look, this is so cool." The cap was a plain black, but at the back it had been embroidered around the adjustment band, spelling out Los Angeles. "I know he misses the baseball here, so. And I got this for my dad."

She pulled out a small painting of the beach, and Flynn oohed it appreciatively. "It’s gorgeous, Jules."

Julie smiled sadly. "It’s the cove. We used to go there for Papi's birthday every year. It was..."

It was her mom's tradition.

Carrie and Flynn hugged her from either side as they got to the cars. "We gotchu, girl."

"Thanks guys."

"Plans for tonight?" Reggie asked, coming upon the girls and casually slinging an arm around Bobby, drawing him in. Bobby gave him a hair ruffle in return, as close to amiable as Julie was used to seeing him.

"You guys dance," Luke said, dragging the others to consult in instead of putting their instruments away. "You didn't mention it."

Oh.

That was the problem.

Of course Luke would want to know she was a dancer, even if Julie hadn't been able to call herself that in almost a year.

"Oh!" Nick said, eyes lighting up. "There's a club you guys should come with us to, it’s awesome! Big local dance scene."

Alex, standing unusually close to Willie, gave him a shy smile. "It’s pretty lit, you should come."

Willie's eyes shot to Julie, giving her an enquiring look. She was touched that her friend was putting her first, but unfortunately it would be to his detriment.

"It’s been a pretty long day, and we all got a lot of sun. I think I kind of just want to go back to Carrie's and crash, but you guys should all go."

Bobby's smile twisted. "Wait, is it Sunday?"

"Yep."

He sighed, releasing Reggie. "Care, we have mandatory family bonding dinner tonight."

Carrie huffed in disappointment. "You're right, I forgot. I'm out guys - this dinner is my dad's condition for bank rolling our trip."

Reggie gave Flynn a hopeful look, but she shook her head. "Sorry, you guys are great eye candy, but I gotta have solidarity with my girls.

"And it'd feel wrong going out alone," Willie sighed. "But maybe tomorrow?"

Alex looked devastated, and Julie felt awful for putting that expression on her friend’s face. But between the earlier glimpse of a leather jacket, the insight into her mother’s favorite instrument, and the inadvertent trip down memory lane via the busking, Julie was emotionally spent.

But. Julie considered herself an excellent wing woman in any circumstance.

"Willie," she said innocently, "why don't you give Lex your number and we can coordinate through you guys? It seems safer than trusting the twins to keep us all on point."

Alex and Willie both blushed, shooting her separate offended glances, but she shrugged angelically. They gave numbers, with much blushing and stuttering, and Flynn gave her a high five without looking.

"Well, it makes more sense to separate here then," Bobby pointed out, not seeing Nick's face fall. "Willie can take us back. Luke, you coming over tomorrow after work?"

"Yeah, but I have the afternoon shift from Wednesday ‘til the weekend, so I might tell my folks I'm crashing with you."

Bobby nodded, Flynn raised her eyebrows, and the groups separated. Julie fluttered her fingers in goodbye at the others before getting into the backseat of the car Willie had borrowed for their outing, Bobby taking the front passenger and Flynn and Carrie squeezing into the back.

"You okay?" Carrie asked, voice pitched low as Willie pulled out and Flynn waved at the enthusiastic Reggie, who was ignoring the other band members as they argued about who would get shotgun.

"Just drained," she replied in a near whisper. "Losing my mom’s jacket is a lot."

Carrie nodded, putting an arm around Julie supportively, keeping it there until they got back to the mansion and the twins separated to go to dinner. Willie, Flynn and Julie made their way to Carrie's room, planning to reheat a pizza after Carrie's family dinner was over instead.

"So," Julie said straight off the bat, grinning at Willie. "You are welcome to thank me now for wingwomaning you."

"That's not a word," Flynn piped up from where she was unpacking her purchases.

"You're not a word," Julie shot back.

Willie shook his head as he let down his hair from its braid. "You don't do subtle, do you?"

"To be fair, subtlety is a lost art with those boys," Flynn commented, holding up her new turquoise crop top. "They did sing Brown Eyed Girl at us all. Which, also, I did not actually realize we all have brown eyes until literally after the song was done."

"Huh," Willie said, as though he was having a revelation. "That didn't clock for me either."

"Have you texted Alex yet?"

"Someone has a very one-track mind."

Julie smiled. "It’s a coping mechanism, and Dr. Turner says you should let me have them when I need them. But really, have you?"

"Shouldn't I wait for him to do it first?" Willie asked, beginning to mess with his hair like he always did when anxious. Julie gently went behind him and took the strands out of his hands, beginning to carefully give him a braid crown. "Since I asked for his number?"

"I don't think the normal rules apply, since Julie asked for it on your behalf," Flynn said, finally coming to sit on the edge of the king-sized bed the four of them had decided to share for the trip. "Also, Alex is hella nervous about everything, so if you can, you should definitely make the first move."

Willie gnawed on his lip. "I guess... but you guys have to help me figure out what to say."

When Carrie returned, bearing pizza, she found her friends giggling over Willie's phone, and threw herself into the pile. "No way! You guys texted without me!"

They welcomed her into their midst, and she read the conversation ("did you seriously just make a dance pun in an attempt to flirt? Honestly, William, I thought I taught you better") before there was a lull in the texting and Flynn had a chance to ask how dinner went.

Carrie wrinkled her nose. "Bobby really has no clue how to hold a conversation, and its painful to watch. My dad is good though, and he'd like to have you guys join us before we fly back to New York."

Julie smiled. "I'd like that. Trevor was always really nice to us growing up." She lightly nudged Carrie. "Remember that time Carlos and Chad threw a baseball through the window?"

"Excuse me, Chad Danforth-Evans did what?" Willie demanded, bolting upright. "Pour all the tea about my gay idols right now."

***************************************************************************

It was ridiculous, and Luke knew it. There was no way they could be the same group - for one thing, Carrie had been crying in her room when they got back, and for another, he would recognize their voices. Say what you want about Lucas Mitchell Patterson, but he was slightly more observant than your average garden gnome.

"Did that dance Flynn and Willie did together seem familiar?" he asked, looking at Reggie in the back seat. Reggie shrugged, head bopping to the tune of Welcome to the Black Parade.

Alex, in the passenger seat, frowned. "Familiar how?"

"Like that girl from the club, the one who battled us."

"Huh. I don't actually remember it enough to say for sure. Nick?"

Nick, next to Reggie, let out a happy sigh. "Carrie's so pretty."

Luke burst out laughing, momentarily distracted. "You're so whipped."

Alex winced. "Please never say that again, but I agree, you're gone on Carrie. Didn't you guys have a thing before she moved?"

"We played spin the bottle once at Kayla's birthday party and she kissed me," Nick said, in the tone of a treasured memory.

"Oh, I was there," Reggie said, his attention pulled from the beat of the music. "Didn't Brad Thompson try to cannon ball into the pool and whimp out and belly flop instead?

All four boys winced; the unfortunate experience burned into their minds.

"Yeah. It was like the sixth grade, I think? But then I started hanging out with Flynn and Julie too, and we pretended it never happened.

"Sorry man," Alex said sympathetically. "That blows."

It killed the conversation until they got to the Danforth-Evans house. Ryan was outside, talking to a couple who looked familiar in the proximity way that adults who had been around when Luke was growing up seemed familiar but not immediately recognizable.

Nick, however, recognized them immediately, and a big smile broke over his face. "Troy! Gabriella!"

He abandoned the boys, only grabbing his guitar before giving the couple a hug. They waved at him as they pulled away.

"And they were?" Luke asked once he was a street away.

"Troy and Gabriella Bolton," Alex reported. "Gabriella is a scientist at NYU and Troy is on Broadway."

"Why are they in LA?"

"Troy and Chad are best friends from high school."

Luke nodded. "Gotcha. Okay, boys, separate houses or sleepover?"

"I'm good to go home," Alex reported. Reggie nodded his agreement.

"Homes it is."

Reggie first, waving at the corner of the street. Luke worried - Reggie's parents, while not physically abusive, were not good for each other, and poor happy sunshine Reggie got dragged into a lot of their arguments as a deciding vote. It was a horrible spot for him go be in.

Alex next, another thing to worry over - weird Mrs. Mercer, who had sniffed her disapproval at Luke so many times he had offered her a tissue. Alex and Luke had had a fling that lasted three months a year ago, but Alex still wasn't out to his parents or his sister, and Luke worried about if Alex would be okay once it happened.

Finally, to pull up to his own house.

Inside, his parents were in their usual spots - Mitch chopping, Emily stirring whatever would be for dinner. Luke greeted them, pretending not to notice how they gave his guitar a Look before he stashed it in his room.

Returning, he got out the plates and set the table. A short serving time later, the three ate in a tense silence.

Luke cleared his throat in an attempt to break it. "Mom, do you remember Julie Molina?"

Emily looked surprised. "Rosa and Ray Molina's daughter? Yes, I think so. She was friends with Bobby's sister, wasn't she?"

"She's here for spring break."

That got his dad's attention. "Are Ray and Rosa with her? I'd like to catch up."

Luke winced, realizing his mistake. "Um, actually, there's something I should tell you."

Predictably, his mother cried at the news. Predictably, his father comforted her. Predictably, Luke stood around feeling awkward and trying to apologize, while his mom waved off his attempts.

"Poor Rosa," she said eventually, returning to their cold meal. "So healthy too. It always seems such a shock."

Mitch nodded sadly. "Rosa was the picture of health too. Always seemed so happy to do a marathon."

Luke smiled at the thought - Julie was in good shape, he could see from what little he had observed, but when Willie mentioned a run to start his Monday, Julie had said, "why would you ruin a perfectly good week by starting it with cardio?"

"How is Julie though?"

"Good."

"Do you know what her plans for the next year are?"

Emily might as well have had a sign over her head saying TRAP in neon letters - another college talk. Luke shovelled food into his mouth, swallowed, and got out "nopegotbreakhomeworkgottagothanksforfoodnight."

Bolting to his room, he found his song journal, blatantly ignoring the pile of homework he needed to finish before the end of break in favour of running his mind over the events of the day in an attempt to calm down.

Slowly, a thought wrote across the top of a page without instruction from him.

_I put the rhythm in my heart_

And again, Luke stared at the page, frustrated, as the rest of the thoughts hovered out of reach.

He still didn't know who he was writing about. But he was beginning to wonder if it would matter if the song wouldn't emerge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song mentioned:  
> Welcome to the Black Parade by MCR
> 
> Thanks for reading! Sorry if it isn't great, as I said this chapter fought me every step of the way. Anyone who has any plot ideas, feel free to throw them at me - I have a vague idea of what's coming next and a concrete finish, but this middle bit is not making my life easy right now.


	11. “Who are you and what have you done with my favorite clueless guitarist?”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Julie gets bonding with Trevor and Bobby, and Luke gets an interesting visitor at work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These chapters really be hating me, huh?
> 
> Trigger warnings for grief, I don't think anything else but let me know if I missed something please.

“Jules?”

Julie turned over from where she was contemplating the ceiling, unable to sleep. “Yeah?”

Flynn’s hand came out to cover hers. “I’m glad you’re dancing again. Aunt Rose would be proud.”

Julie smiled. “Thanks, Flynn.”

They lay in silence for a few minutes, before Julie heard the rhythmic quiet snores that meant Flynn had fallen asleep. Moving carefully to extract herself from Willie’s grip and not disturb Flynn, Julie crawled to the bottom of the bed before putting on her dinosaur slippers and slipping out of the room quietly. 

Julie made her way to the kitchen to pour some water, only to find the kitchen already occupied by the two Wilson men. She must have made a noise, because their heads snapped up to look at her.

“Sorry,” she said, giving an awkward wave. “I’ll just go.”

“No, Julie, stay.” Julie wasn’t used to hearing Bobby sound so vulnerable – his default was dry sarcasm, same as Alex – and something in it reminded her of a time when Bobby was as much a brother to her as Carlos. Moving slowly, she came in and took a glass.

“Juice?” Trevor asked, gesturing to the carton of apple juice at his elbow. With a shrug, Julie poured for herself and took a seat, one stool down from Bobby.

“It’s good to see you, Julie,” Trevor said quietly, the weight of the last time they’d seen each other hovering over the scene.

_Julie, clutching Carlos’s hand in her left, Flynn hanging onto her right for dear life. Carrie stood with her hand supportively on one shoulder, Willie with his on the other, as they faced the grave._

_**Rosa Molina  
**   
Beloved mother, sister, wife, artist  
You filled our lives with music and color_

_“Is that…” Carlos’s voice trailed off. Julie’s head snapped up to see a man, retreating, wearing a leather duster and a zebra print scarf. Carrie’s eyes followed hers, and she frowned._

_“Dad?”_

“Dad just told me he knew,” Bobby said quietly, finger tracing the rim of the glass. “I’m really sorry, Julie-bean. I would have been there.”

She smiled sadly. “Thanks, Bobby.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes, drinking their juice and trying to ignore the ghosts hovering over the scene. One was Carrie’s mom, standing in the corner with her glass of champagne. Another, Rose Molina, laughing at them affectionately as they danced around their feelings. Somewhere, there were Julie and Bobby as kids, playing with Carrie as the girls forced Bobby to have his tiny nails painted despite his protests.

“I can’t sing,” Julie finally said quietly, admitting it like it was a weight pressing down on her lungs, keeping her from inhaling. “I haven’t been able since Mami…”

Trevor and Bobby knew what this meant to her. They’d watched her grow up, watched her grow as a singer. They’d been there the day Carrie exploded at Julie for taking all the attention in both their houses, watched as the two girls spent six months drifting apart before Bobby decided he’d had enough and forced them to sit and talk about it. They’d been there when the girls did their applications and their audition videos for the exclusive performing arts academy with Flynn (in fact, Bobby had been the one to film b roll for Mr. Molina). 

They hadn’t been there when Rose came back from the hospital and had a quiet discussion with Ray while Julie tried to hush her brother, her ear pressed against the door during her weekend visit. 

But Carrie and Flynn had been. They’d been there when Julie had called after making out some scary words. In the small dorm room the three of them shared, Flynn had held her hand while Carrie googled the terms Julie had heard. 

They’d been there the day Julie asked for permission to switch streams, to be home while Rose slowly became more and more of a pale imitation of the vibrant woman who brought Julie into life.

But Julie had been alone when her mother was rushed to hospital in the middle of the night, Carlos confused and crying as they sat on the couches and waited.

And when the call came at 3am, Julie had been the one to destroy both their lives.

“How long has it been?” Bobby asked quietly.

“More than a year. School is getting antsy. If I can’t perform my finals when we go back, I won’t graduate.”

Trevor sucked in a gasp through his teeth. “Are they allowed to do that?”

“Yes. They could have kicked me out before, but it’s bad for appearances if they kick out a grieving student.” She smiled sadly, sipping at her juice.

“Nothing to do with music at all?” Trevor asked softly. Julie felt like a little kid again, when Trevor and Rose would teach their kids music by talking to them like adults, challenging them gently to find more in their understanding of the songs they were singing.

Julie smiled reluctantly. “Well, I did manage to dance a few nights ago. But I think it’s because it’s not as linked to Mami. I danced with Carrie first.”

Trevor nodded. “I understand. But Julie…”

“Don’t,” she said quietly. “I know she would have wanted me to sing. It’s all anyone has said to me.”

Trevor smiled at her, sending a shoot of longing through her for her father. “That wasn’t what I was going to say. I was going to say if you need time off, or away, after everything, you’d be welcome to stay with us. We always have room for you here.”

Bobby nudged her gently. “Maybe you can help me convince Reg that we shouldn’t add Shania Twain to the set list for our gigs. If I hear him and Luke argue once more about Man! I Feel Like a Woman, I may actually lose it.”

Julie let out a snort, and just like that, all the serious feelings that had been crowding in her throat were released as father and son snickered quietly with her. 

“Thank you, both of you.” Julie gave Bobby another nudge, knowing he wasn’t keen on hugs, but didn’t hesitate to give Trevor a hug as she rose to her feet. “I appreciate it.”

Trevor gently patted her arm. “Always, sweetheart. You going back to bed?”

She nodded. “I’ll see if I can sleep. It’s kind of hard right now though.”

“Nightmares?” he asked sympathetically.

“More like Carrie’s snoring,” Bobby muttered, grinning when Julie ruffled his hair in retaliation. 

“No, I…” she took a deep breath. “I lost something of my mom’s when I was dancing, and it’s haunting me. There was a letter in the pocket…”

Trevor turned to give her a proper fatherly hug. “I’m so sorry Julie-bean. Is there any way to find it again?”

A plan began to form in her mind, a smile stealing over her lips. “Actually… maybe there is.”

*********************************************************************************

Luke sat people watching for fifteen minutes before he registered the look of amusement on Tia’s face.

“Rough night?”

He grinned sheepishly. “That obvious?”

“Your eye bags could hold my groceries,” Tia said dryly, straightening from adjusting beginning guitar workbooks. “Also, I tried to call you three times, mijo. What’s going on?”

Luke sighed heavily, popping up from where he was leaning on the counter. “There’s this girl. Well, two girls, really.”

A disapproving look came over her face. “Lucas Patterson, I know I raised you better than that.”

He gave her a cheeky grin. “Tia, I’m pretty sure you didn’t raise me at all. I have two parents.”

She waved her hand dismissively. “Details, now. And hurry, I’m having coffee with my niece soon.”

Luke’s head shot up, like a meerkat. “The musical one?”

Victoria pointed an accusing finger at him. “No, you don’t. You keep that smooth voice and those arms away from her, I won’t have you make my niece fall in love with you.”

Luke laughed, approaching to straighten the rest of the books in the rack. “Jealous, Tia? I knew you always had a thing for me.” He pretended to swoon against the book rack. “Shall we away at once to the nearest chapel?”

“I take it back, you can deal with your own problems. I am leaving.”

“No, my love!” he called, laughing as Victoria made her way to Alex’s coffeeshop without giving him another look. With a continued chuckle, he took down one of the acoustic guitars to test the tuning, feeling better. Maybe he was having problems trying to figure out what was going on with this whole Rose vs. Julie thing, but at least he could still make his boss laugh. 

The bell over the door, the one they’d threatened more than once to put on Bobby if he didn’t stop appearing out of nowhere, rang, and his head shot up.

“Dang, dude, you stalking me?”

Willie grinned, shooting Luke finger guns. “Nah, man, I’m here dropping off Julie. She’s meeting someone for coffee or something like that. Anyways, I wanted to stop in and say hi.”

Luke grinned knowingly. “No you don’t. You want to come talk to me about Alex.”

Willie shot him the worlds fakest confused face. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“So you didn’t text him last night?”

Luke didn’t really need the confirmation that spread over Willie’s face along with his blush – the group chat for the boys had been spammed all night with screenshots and exclamation points as Alex demanded help from his friends. Reggie and Nick had genuinely tried to help, but Luke had sent through memes instead, and Bobby had been absent from the conversation. 

“Fine,” Willie groaned, throwing himself onto the piano bench. Luke came to sit next to him, still strumming the acoustic and tuning by ear as he went. “I want to talk to you about Alex.”

Luke mentally noted that he won the bet, and Bobby and Reggie owed him a meal.

“What’s up my man? Ask Doctor Luke all your difficult questions.”

Willie gave him a skeptical look. “Doctor Luke?”

“You know, like Doctor Phil?”

The look remained skeptical, and Luke muttered under his breath about a tough crowd.

“I’m trying to figure out a way to ask him out that says ‘hey I like you from what I’ve seen of you and I want to get to know you better, but I understand your family can be weird and that I’m about to go back across the country so we can just make it a chill hangout.’ What says that?”

Luke fiddled with the tuning pegs as he considered. “Daisies?”

Willie rose to his feet. “Nuh uh. I am done with this and going to look at skateboards. Goodbye, Doctor Luke.”

“Gimme a good Yelp review!” Luke yelled at the retreating skaters back, grinning when the only response was an obscene gesture thrown back his way. With a chuckle, he set the guitar back on its stand and went to stand behind the counter, pulling out his phone.

_Luke @ Sunset Curve: you’ll never guess who came to the store_

_Alex @ Sunset Curve: Your parents? Trevor Wilson? South African singer Brendan Peyper?_

_Nick @ Sunset Curve: Of all the people he could have been talking about, you suggest that?_

_Alex @ Sunset Curve: What?! He’s a good singer!_

_Reggie @ Sunset Curve: You just have a thing for midwestern types_

_Bobby @ Sunset Curve: this is an important conversation at 10.30 on a Monday? You guys are interrupting movie time_

_Luke @ Sunset Curve: to answer the original question, no, Willie did. Wanted to talk good things about a certain drummer 😉_

_Alex @ Sunset Curve: asdfghjklpoiuytrewqzxcvbnm_

_Reggie @ Sunset Curve: Oh great, you broke Alex_

Luke grinned, putting his phone back under the counter as a tall girl came in and quietly bought nylon guitar strings. When he asked if she needed them strung as well, he heard the distinct sound of Now or Never playing, Alex’s ringtone, and had to bite back a smirk as he apologized and rejected the call.

“If Tia catches me, she’ll fire me,” he informed Alex after the girl left. 

“DID WILLIE REALLY WANT TO TALK ABOUT ME OH MY GOSH LUKE IF YOU ARE MESSING WITH ME I WILL EAT EVERY JAR OF PEANUT BUTTER IN YOUR HOUSE.”

“First of all, uncalled for. Second, yes, he was here maybe half an hour ago? He said he was dropping off Julie and wanted to go look at skateboards.”

Alex let out a pitiful groan. “Of all the times to get the Monday shift off.”

“You hate Monday shifts. You hate every shift, actually.”

“Yes but not when there are cute guys wanting to see me!” A beat passed. “Actually, yes, every shift. But dude!”

Luke bit back a smile, knowing it would come across in his voice. “He wants to hang out.”

“Hang out, or hang out?”

“Is there a difference?”

“Urgh!” Alex groaned, before letting out a huff. In his mind’s eye, Luke could imagine him throwing himself onto his bed. “You’re useless. But I can’t ask Carrie, because Willie is her friend too. And I can’t ask Bobby, because Willie is staying at his house.”

“That’s your problem with asking Bobby?”

“And I can’t ask Reg or Nick, because they’re both useless, and I can’t ask my sister because…”

Because Alex wasn’t out. 

To cover the loaded moment, Luke cleared his throat. “Hey, you have morning shift tomorrow like me, right? Why don’t we ask the Wilsons and company to go to the beach after we’re done? Reg has been nagging since the girls went, and it gives you a chance to get to know Willie with less pressure.”

“That’s… not actually a bad idea.”

Luke beamed at the empty shop.

“Who are you and what have you done with my favourite clueless guitarist?”

Luke took back every nice thought he’d ever had about Alex. “See if I ever help you again, you disaster gay.”

Alex laughed as Luke cut off the call and slid the phone back into his pocket. He was inspired though – if he could help Alex with his problem, surely he could sort out the Rose issue. All it required was some careful planning with his friends, and making sure he didn’t miss a single night that week.

And then maybe, just maybe, he could finally get Rose out of his head, and give his focus to his music.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Songs mentioned:  
> Man! I Feel Like a Woman by Shania Twain (I'm working out how to make them sing it)  
> Brendan Peyper is indeed awesome, and you should definitely check him out online. My personal favorite is Stop, Wag, Bly nog 'n Bietjie, but all his stuff is awesome tbh.
> 
> I forgot to mention earlier, but if at any point anyone wants to see an alternative POV for any of these scenes or any "lost" scenes, please let me know and I'll do my best to provide.
> 
> Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed!


	12. “Police raids, kids. Not as fun as you’d think.”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The performing arts kids drag Bobby into a movie marathon, I whump on Reggie a little (I'm sorry Reggie, I love you and you deserve all the puppies, hamsters and pizza in the world) and we have even more behind the scenes references.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No trigger warnings for this chapter, but as usual if I've missed anything, please let me know.

“Excuse me, you want to do what?”

Julie threw popcorn at Flynn. “You heard me.”

Carrie threw popcorn back. “Say it again, we want to be sure we aren’t hallucinating.”

Julie sighed heavily. “I want to go back to the club tonight.”

“You, Julie Molina, want to go to a club on a Monday night,” Willie clarified, before snorting. “We live in New York City! All the times I tried to get you guys to go out with me, and you wait until we are in LA before you take me up on it. Why am I surprised?”

Julie groaned, covering her face. “If you guys are going to be rude, I’ll ask Bobby to take me.”

“No, you won’t,” Carrie said with authority, shifting to offer Willie popcorn. “Because if you tell Bobby, he’ll tell Luke, and then you have to explain to your crush why you keep obsessing over the cute guy you destroyed while you were dancing.”

“I do not have a crush on Luke!”

“I feel like you’re focusing on the wrong part of that statement,” Flynn observed, before being hit in the face by a throw pillow. “Hey!”

“Break it up, ladies,” Bobby said tiredly, returning with the snacks they’d asked him to grab for their impromptu binging of the Phase 1 Marvel movies. Currently, they were paused halfway through Thor, and kept making fun of both Willie, who clearly had a thing for the blond main, and Carrie, who kept turning deep red every time Darcy was on screen. It was admittedly better than Flynn and Julie, who had struggled to speak every time Natasha Romanoff was on screen in Iron Man 2.

“Bobby,” Julie said with a winning smile. “What’s the name of the club you and your band go to?”

Bobby shot her a frantic look, before looking around to make sure Trevor wasn’t anywhere near them. “Baby Molina, are you trying to get me grounded until my senior year of college? If my dad finds out…”

Carrie snorted. “Please, Bobby, Dad’s easy.”

“Isn’t that kind of rude?” Flynn said with a wicked grin. “I mean, he is your dad, it seems kind of rude to talk about him like that.”

Carrie carefully gave Willie the popcorn before launching herself at her friend, grabbing a pillow and apparently trying to smother Flynn with it. Julie and Willie, well used to this, ignored it in favor of looking at Bobby, who seemed only mildly concerned at his twin attempting murder via goose feathers.

“IF we went to a club, which WE ABSOLUTELY DO NOT,” Bobby enunciated clearly, “it would probably be called something inconspicuous, like The Lot.”

Julie accidentally snorted her juice, and Willie pounded on her back as Flynn and Carrie left off their fight to make sure they weren’t about to lose their best friend to apple juice.

“Is it seriously just called The Lot?” Julie got out once her air paths were clear. 

Bobby shrugged as he set the movie to carry on playing. “It’s not meant to be catchy; it’s meant to be inconspicuous. If the cops find out they’re actually letting people in and violating the health code, they would be screwed. Police raids, kids. Not as fun as you’d think.”

That started an immediate argument between Carrie and Bobby – Carrie was only a few minutes younger than Bobby, and Willie was older than them all by a year. Willie gave Julie and Flynn an exasperated grin, familiar with the arguing.

Willie’s phone vibrated in his pocket, jolting Julie from where her hip was pressed against it. When Willie got the familiar lovestruck grin over his face, Julie and Flynn exchanged grins.

“Would that happen to be our favorite blond drummer?” Flynn asked, throwing herself over Julie’s lap to see the phone. Julie, not prepared, let out a loud “oof” as her petite friend landed.

Bobby groaned. “Carrie, keep your friends away from mine. I don’t need your friend distracting Alex.”

“Distracting him from what?”

Carrie reached out to stop the movie, since no one was paying attention to Thor’s temper tantrum at not picking up his hammer. “Valid question, Bobby. What does Alex need to pay attention to?”

“That’s private,” Bobby said in a superior tone. Carrie rolled her eyes, crawling across the couch to get to Willie’s other side so they could see the message he’d sent.

_Alex (drummer): Hey um so_

_Alex (drummer): I don’t know if you guys have plans tomorrow afternoon_

_Alex (drummer): but maybe we could go to the beach as a group?_

Julie grinned victoriously. “I knew it! What did you do while I was having coffee with my Tia?”

“I spoke to Luke,” Willie told her, tilting his phone. “He was on shift. But he was not helpful, so at least we have confirmation that every pansexual we know is useless.”

Carrie licked her finger and tried to stick it into Willie’s ear, grinning when she got him and he yelled out in disgust.

“Well, say yes!” Flynn said with authority. “We’re at the beach tomorrow anyways for that jet ski lesson Mr. Wilson paid for, so this is a good opportunity for you two!”

Willie bit his lip. “You sure?”

“Do it!” all three girls said in chorus. With a reluctant smile, Willie began to type back.

_Willie: yeah bro, that’d be cool. We’ll be there in the morning too, so whenever you guys are ready._

“Is that okay?”

Julie nodded, taking the phone out of Willie’s hands. “It’s good. Takes the pressure off, so he won’t worry.”

Willie took a deep breath and nodded. “I really like him.”

Julie’s heart almost exploded from tenderness as she put an arm around his shoulders. “I know, Willie.”

A few minutes later, after continuing the movie, Julie’s phone rang. She glanced at it, before smiling. 

“I have to take this.”

Walking out, she accepted the FaceTime call, grinning at her brother and father as she settled on one of the loungers next to the pool. “Papi! Carlos!”

“Julie!” her dad said, affection clear in his voice. 

“Julie,” her brother echoed, less enthusiastically. “Dad, I helped you, please can I go now?”

Julie gave him a sly grin. “Is that girl from your math class calling or – “

“OKAY THANKS BYE JULIE I DON’T MISS YOU.” Carlos dropped the phone like it was a hot potato and bolted off screen, to her and her dad’s mixed laughter. 

Ray gave her a considering glance. “You look happy. Settled.”

Julie smiled. “I feel better. It’s the ocean air, I think.”

Ray updated her about the happenings in New York, staunchly avoiding the topic of school – it was a bridge he had promised to let Julie cross on her own. When he was done describing the latest photoshoot he had done for an adoption day of a little girl and her dads, Julie told him the least incriminating things they had done – their beach day, the impromptu movie marathon Flynn and Carrie had started while she was having coffee with Tia Victoria that she had been dragged into, and their plans for the next day with the boys and jet skis.

However, when she mentioned she had managed to dance with Willie at the pier during the busking, her dad dropped the phone.

“Carlos!” he yelled in a panicky voice as Julie tried not to laugh. “I dropped the phone! Come call your sister back right now!”

Carlos appeared a few seconds later as the phone was picked back up. “Dad, she’s still on the line. Look, that’s her there.”

Julie waved. “Hi, Papi.”

Ray let out a relieved breath. “Thank goodness. Mija, you danced! I’m so proud of you!”

“Woah, you danced?” Carlos demanded, propping his chin on Ray’s shoulder. “When did that happen?”

Knowing exactly how the real story would be received, Julie quickly spun a story about Flynn and Carrie asking the boys to go through her favorite songs until she relented. Carlos applauded her, Ray looked like he was about to cry, and Julie began to question if it was the right decision to tell them.

“Dad, are you okay?”

Ray wiped at his eyes. “Yeah, yeah honey. I just… I was so worried. But this is a step in the right direction. Maybe this is how we keep Mom’s memory alive.”

Julie gave him a soft smile. “Yeah, maybe.”

“Jules?”

Julie’s head snapped up to see Bobby and Carrie both waiting for her at the door to the patio. “Dad, I have to go, I’m sorry. I’ll call you a little later, okay?”

“Okay, honey, I love you!”

Julie put the phone down and slid it into her pocket, approaching the twins. “What’s up?”

Carrie bit her lip nervously. “We, um, have company.”

Behind her stood Reggie, looking rumpled and his eyes rimmed in red like he had been crying.

“Hey Julie. Mind if I crash movie day?”

**********************************************************************************

Luke was in the middle of trying to do his science homework when his phone chimed. Hoping it was Reggie offering his advice for the question he had sent through earlier, he opened the group chat and felt the blood drain from his face.

_Bobby @ Sunset Curve: anyone who can, come to my place_

_Bobby @ Sunset Curve: Reg is here. Not good._

_Nick @ Sunset Curve: On my way. Alex, I’ll pick you up_

_Luke @ Sunset Curve: I’ll try to get away_

“Hey Mom?”

Emily looked up from her knitting. “Yes?”

“Would it be okay if I went to Bobby’s to finish my science homework? He and Reg are studying together, and these formulas are killing me.”

Emily frowned. “Are you boys actually going to study, or are you going to mess around on your instruments?”

Luke bit back a sigh. His mom hadn’t heard him play in more than a year, ever since he started practicing at Bobby’s, and it grated that she referred to it as ‘messing around’.

”Mr. Wilson will be there, and you can check my work when I get back.” 

Emily sighed. “Okay, fine. Are you going to sleep over there?”

“Probably, but I’ll come home tomorrow after work.” He would have to unless he wanted to borrow trunks from Bobby again. Although, come to think of it, Bobby might still have a pair of his floating around somewhere.

He went to grab his stuff, throwing random clothes into his backpack along with his homework and hoping that the guys wouldn’t be too distracting so he could actually get some work done, once they had Reggie settled. His phone buzzed as he dug it out, on the way to his car.

_Alex @ Sunset Curve: we’re almost there. You guys good?_

_Bobby @ Sunset Curve: yeah, Carrie has him eating Reese’s and watching Thor_

_Bobby @ Sunset Curve: it’s kind of funny watching him and Julie both crush on Hawkeye_

_Alex @ Sunset Curve: need us to bring anything?_

_Bobby @ Sunset Curve: yeah, Luke, Reg wants a cuddle pile_

_Luke @ Sunset Curve: on my way, give me 20 minutes_

Technically, the drive from the Patterson residence to the Wilson’s took half an hour, but Luke knew he could shave off the time. Grinning, he plugged in his phone and pulled up Spotify.

Exactly 22 minutes and 15 seconds later, Luke came to a stop outside the Wilson house and grabbed his backpack before trying to be casual about walking in. What he did not expect was to hear laughter from the kitchen.

Dropping his backpack in the entryway, he made his way there, finding Alex and Willie watching while Reggie and Julie peeled potatoes. As Luke swung into a seat, he was witness to Reggie holding it up and melodramatically proclaiming, “Why do you hate me?”

“Did I miss something?” Luke asked Julie. She turned to grin at him over her shoulder.

_“That’s not how it works, Blue. You don’t get a prize for losing.”_

He blinked away the vision, flushing at Julie. “Sorry, didn’t catch that.”

Julie laughed. “I don’t blame you. It’s insane, right?”

He laughed and nodded, before leaning into Alex once her attention was gone. “Seriously, what happened?”

Alex snorted. “Did the sight of someone pretty smiling at you disrupt your thought process?” Without waiting for the answer, which would have undoubtedly involved Alex and how he forgot to function when Willie smiled at him, Alex continued with the explanation. “Nick and I got here, and Flynn decided she needed to start a game of What Are the Odds, and Julie and Reg escaped here to make fries for the show.”

Luke grinned. Some of his best memories were with What Are the Odds. Granted, they had also led to several questionable decisions (the dead bird incident came to mind, as did the time he and the boys had wrapped Alex’s drum kit in Christmas paper for no apparent reason), but he still loved the game.

Then his brain caught up, and his mouth fell open. “You mean I have Flynn to thank for this game?”

Julie caught that and nodded, looking exasperated. “She started it with me and Carrie when we were like seven? First and last time I’ve ever seen Carrie dive into a public fountain.”

Luke almost choked at the mental picture of Carrie, who always looked perfect, diving into a fountain at seven. Alex burst out laughing as well, and Willie looked thunderstruck.

Once Luke could breathe, he shot Willie an understanding look because… yeah, he’d been there. 

“So, Julie is teaching me to make sweet potato fries,” Reggie said, waving the potato through the air enthusiastically. 

Julie smiled at Reggie with real affection. “Of course. And once you have them mastered, I’ll teach you how to make more complicated stuff.”

“But you go back to New York next week,” Reggie said with a distinct pout. 

“FaceTime,” Julie said, like it fixed everything. “Or if you’re on Android, we can do WhatsApp video calls. My tia does them with my dad when her iPad is flat.”

“Jules,” Flynn announced, entering the kitchen. “We have to get going, otherwise Bobby and Carrie are going to dare each other to do something stupid.”

“So, a normal game then,” Alex deadpanned. Willie giggled – actually straight up GIGGLED – and Julie’s eyes shot to Alex as he blushed a deep red. Luke got the feeling they were having their own version of the ‘yeah it’s going to melt you a little, no, it doesn’t really get any better’ conversation. 

“Okay, well let me just get these going,” Julie said, turning back to the sliced fries. “Reg, do you want to chop that one into slices and we can leave them soaking until these are ready?”

Reggie nodded and began to slice the potato he had been holding with more finesse than Luke had expected. When they were done and Julie had set the timer, the group headed towards the pool, where Luke could see Nick sitting scrolling on his phone, blatantly ignoring the twins arguing at his side.

Before they could go out completely, Luke pulled Reggie into a tight hug. Reggie went boneless against him, melting into the embrace.

“Whenever you’re ready,” Luke murmured into Reggie’s ear. Reggie nodded before taking a deep breath and standing upright again. 

“Thanks, dude. I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Alex turned back to them, looking offended. “Hey! I want in on this too!” He spun back around, gesturing at Carrie. “Carrie! I need you to tell me you love me!”

Luke laughed as he and Reggie trailed out, watching as Carrie looked Alex up and down with an unamused look. “Why?”

“I’d die for you.”

“Then perish.”

The group groaned through their laughter, before Julie gave Alex a fond look. “Don’t worry, Lex. I love you.”

“You’re my only real friend.” Crossing to sit next to Julie on her lounger, he wrapped his long arms around his short friend, pulling her into his embrace. “Julie is mine now and none of you are allowed near us.”

“Not even me?” Willie joked, sitting on the ground between the two loungers where the group were assembling.

“Willie’s solid,” Julie said reassuringly, trying to wiggle out of Alex’s grip. Alex held onto her even tighter, stubborn.

“Alex, what are the odds you let Julie go?” Flynn piped up, sitting next to Carrie as Bobby sat on the ground between Willie and Reggie. Luke, leaning back on the ground across from them, completed their circle.

“That’s a throwaway of your first turn,” Reggie pointed out.

“Worth it for my girl.”

“Wait,” Carrie said, holding up her hand like she could physically stop the flow of action. Alex and Julie both froze. “What rules are we playing by? I refuse to accept that after all these years, you boys didn’t come up with your own set of weird rules.”

Bobby feigned offence. “Excuse you, Carrie. How do we know you aren’t the one with weird rules?”

Before the twins could resume the bickering they were clearly having far too much fun doing, Nick cleared his throat. “We usually go until everyone bar one person has dropped out.”

Julie nodded, still half in Alex’s grip. “That’s different from us, ours last 24 hours and no one drops out.”

“So, which do we go with?”

“I vote boys rules,” Flynn said immediately. “If someone tries to do anything to get my hair wet, I want the option of saying no.”

“Why don’t you want to get your hair wet?” Reggie asked, looking confused. 

Julie and Flynn met eyes and shook their heads sadly at one another. 

“I’m good on our rules too,” Luke said, nudging Alex’s leg. Alex nodded, reluctantly letting Julie out of his grip so she could sit properly. Now that he was looking and she didn’t have an apron over her clothes, Luke could appreciate how pretty Julie looked in her strappy mustard dress. Of course, that just meant he felt like a slob in his cut-off shirt, ripped jean trench coat and baggy jeans, but he forcibly put it out of his mind. It didn’t matter. He was here for Reggie.

“Turns?” Willie asked, tapping a beat on his knee.

“That seems safest,” Bobby agreed. “Otherwise, this is going to end horribly.”

“Youngest to oldest, or reverse order?” Luke asked.

Flynn frowned. “We usually go alphabetically.”

“Either way, that makes Flynn’s turn invalid,” Alex said, pulling Julie back into his embrace. She laughed, seeming resigned to being a teddy bear for him.

They went alphabetically, because it was easier than listening to Carrie and Bobby argue over their ages again. That gave Alex free reign, which he requested a minute to think about.

“Oh, fries are done,” Julie reported, holding up her phone. “Lexie, please let me up?”

Alex released her, immediately shooting Reggie a dirty look when he repeated “Lexie” with a snort. Luke grinned as the group trailed Julie to the kitchen.

“Reg, get a pan,” Julie said with authority, slipping oven mitts over her hands to pull out the tray. “These need to cool for a while, but we can put the next batch in.”

Spying his backpack, Luke remembered his homework and the promise he’d made to his mother to have it done by the time he got back. Frowning, he went to scoop it up.

“Luke, man, where you going?” Nick asked, finally dragging his eyes away from Carrie.

“I have chem homework,” Luke grumbled, “and I promised my mom I’d finish it before I get home tomorrow. Don’t have too much fun without me.”

Reggie’s head popped up. Surprisingly, so did Willie’s.

“I can give you a hand?” Reggie offered, hand frozen over a pan. “I finished the chem stuff last week.”

“How. How do you do that.” Bobby gave the bassist a disgusted look, tinged with affection, and Luke smiled despite himself. 

“Finish your fries, dude. I’m more than halfway done, then we can watch The Avengers.”

Flynn nodded her approval. “I need my blond eye candy.” Carrie snorted, which set off the others as they went back to talking amongst themselves as Julie and Reggie got the next pan of fries ready. 

“Hey, I can help, if you want?” Willie said, swinging to sit at the table next to Luke. “I took AP Chem in high school.”

Luke smiled. “Thanks man. I’d appreciate that.”

It was nice, to be surrounded by found family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed! Honestly these middle chapters are like drawing teeth, but I hope it'll get better soon.


	13. “If you pay attention, you’ll smell smoke too.”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bonding and fluff and no club scene, I'm sorry, I know I keep dragging this out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No trigger warnings as far as I'm aware, but if I've missed something please let me know.
> 
> If anyone has any extra scenes or alternative POVs they'd like to see, please let me know.
> 
> And finally, this chapter dedicated to Odyssey81418 and NorthernLights025 for being amazing, commenting on almost every chapter, and generally making me a lot more comfortable and fulfilled in posting this than I could have dreamed possible. I hope you enjoy it!

After Reggie took out the last pan of fries and Luke had finished his chemistry homework, aided by Willie, the group retreated back to the den. Nick gave the room an amused look.

“Good to know you guys haven’t taken over or anything.”

Julie made a face at him. Admittedly, the room did look different to how it usually did – the heavy curtains had been pulled back to give the space light, there were light pink, blue and purple pillows scattered over the dark leather couch, and a blanket fort large enough for Julie and Flynn to squeeze into was precariously balanced and on the verge of falling down on the edge of the couch. As she watched, Julie watched their creation fall in on itself. 

“My child,” Flynn said sadly, leaning on Julie’s shoulder. “My firstborn. You will be avenged.”

Alex raised an eyebrow. “You’re going to avenge your fort against gravity?”

“Honestly, it’s the most rational thing she’s said all day,” Carrie interjected. “Can you guys please go in so we can figure out the actual Tetris of getting everyone comfortable?”

They entered, letting Carrie flop onto the couch. Julie ended up next to her, with Alex on her other side, apparently still convinced he needed cuddles, and Reggie to his other side. Luke squeezed in on Reggie’s other side, on the verge of falling off the couch, but he seemed happy, so Julie didn’t voice her concerns.

On the other side of Carrie was Nick, which Carrie was studiously trying to ignore with limited success. On his side was Flynn, who was no stranger to the required cuddles of movie time, with Willie next to her and taking the acquisition of Flynn clinging to his arm with remarkable grace. Bobby skipped out on the cuddle fest, instead leaning against the couch from in front of Reggie.

“Hit play,” Carrie demanded. After a shuffle to find the remote, they did.

In the break between Black Widow destroying her captors and going to India, Alex grabbed a handful of popcorn and gave Carrie a grin. “Hey, Care-bear?”

“Yes, Alex?”

“What are the odds you’ll go get me another soda?”

Carrie frowned. “That’s a waste of a dare. You and Flynn are both terrible at this.”

“Am I?” Alex asked innocently. Julie was confused, looking between the two, before she realised –

Carrie was cuddled entirely into Nick’s side. Like, entwined hands and his other arm over her shoulders cuddled. That had to be the most comfortable position in the world. 

Carrie groaned, pulling herself up. “You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch. Prepare for revenge.”

Once Carrie was gone, Julie nudged Nick knowingly, who grinned in embarrassment. “I know, I know. You called it, and you were right.”

“You called it?” Reggie asked.

“When we were eight, I told Nick he’d end up marrying Carrie,” Julie replied. “He didn’t believe me.”

“Your entire basis for the declaration was that we both liked the movie Tangled,” Nick replied drily. “Somehow, I find it difficult to think anyone else would take you seriously either.”

“Hey, Rapunzel rocks,” Alex protested. “Frying pans for life, dude.”

Luke gave an offended gasp. “Are you threatening me, Alexander?”

The boys broke into a scuffle while Julie and Reggie slid to the ground to avoid it, laughing as Reggie landed half on Bobby, who just frowned and left him there. 

“Who goes after Alex?” Willie asked, throwing popcorn at Flynn for her to try to catch.

“Me,” Bobby said, examining his hand. “Obviously.”

“Your name is Robert.”

“No one calls me Robert though.”

“I’m okay with Bobby going,” Julie said, raising her hand. “Bobby, then Carrie, then Flynn.”

“Then you,” Reggie said, pointing across his friend. “Then Luke, Nick, me, and Willie.”

At the sound of his name, Willie gave a small flourish. Carrie chose then to re-enter, handing Alex his soda and frowning at Julie and Reggie on the ground.

“And now?”

“We were discussing What Are the Odds order,” Reggie told her, smiling innocently. “Bobby next, then you.”

That predictably started an argument, but the others tuned out the twins, especially when Bobby rose to Julie’s old place to more conveniently hiss at his sister.

Reggie was also cuddly, but not the same way as Alex. Alex seemed to have to make the decision to cuddle someone and had to use his nerve to stick to it. Reggie seemed to gravitate outwards without conscious effort – by the time it was 5pm and Willie was switching out the discs to start Iron Man 3, Reggie’s head was in Julie’s lap and her hands were running through his hair without her remembering even reaching out.

“You comfy?” Luke asked, turning his head upside down to look at Reggie.

“Julie has magic hands,” Reggie announced, grinning lopsidedly at his friend. Julie blushed and retracted her hands. 

“Guys, what’s for dinner?” Bobby asked, stopping Alex from hitting play. They were silent for a few beats, the thought of actual food a foreign one.

Bobby gave Luke a beatific smile. “Luke, what are the odds you go get us Chinese?”

Luke threw Bobby a glare. “You’re paying.”

“Naturally.”

Luke huffed dramatically. “Fine, but if you guys start this movie without me I’ll never forgive you.”

“You don’t even like this movie,” Alex complained, offering a hand to Julie so she could stretch. “You always complain that you spend the whole movie trying to figure out if you find Robert Downey Jr. or Gwyneth Paltrow hotter.”

Julie laughed, stretching. “Relatable. You need a navigator?”

“Nah, I’ll be okay.”

A beat of silence as Nick, Alex and Reggie gave him unimpressed looks.

“Okay, yeah, a navigator would probably help.”

Flynn reluctantly got to her feet. “I’ll go. I know this great Chinese place nearby.”

Julie shot Flynn a Look, but Flynn waved her off dismissively. Julie felt like groaning – she was almost sure Luke was about to get a version of the shovel talk. 

“Okay, we’ll be back in like twenty,” Flynn reported, grabbing money from Bobby and clamping on Luke’s wrist firmly. Luke shot the rest of the group a panicked look, but those that weren’t studiously ignoring them were trying not to laugh. He gave them all a forlorn look as Flynn dragged him to his car.

“Hey, want to get popcorn?” Julie asked Reggie nudging him conspiratorially with her foot. He nodded and got to his feet, while the others took the opportunity to rearrange on the most comfortable pieces of furniture.

On the way to the kitchen, Julie pulled out her phone, waving Reggie ahead of her as she typed.

_Underachiever @ NYPA Brats: guys what time are we leaving tonight?_

_Disappointment @ NYPA Brats: depends on when the boys retreat, we can’t let them see us_

_Demon @ NYPA Brats: Bobby is already almost asleep, and most of the boys crash after food. We just need to avoid Alex_

_Speedbump @ NYPA Brats: Aww, I don’t want to avoid Alex ☹_

_Disappointment @ NYPA Brats: You can stay behind and keep him ‘distracted’ 😉_

_Speedbump @ NYPA Brats: Literally speechless rn_

Julie slid the phone away, well aware that Flynn and Willie could keep each other going for hours if the mood struck them. She looked up to find Reggie contemplating the air popper and corn.

“Here, like this,” she told him, measuring out the kernels and putting them in the fancy popper, a bowl under the spout to catch the kernels as they came out. She slid the button on and let it run its course, hopping to sit on the counter next to him.

“Hey Reg?”

“Yeah?”

Julie bit her lip. “You don’t have to tell me, but… why were you so upset earlier?”

Reggie almost visually shut down. “I’m fine now.”

“Okay,” she said gently. Julie had experienced enough people in the past year trying to ‘help’ when she lost her mom when what she really needed space to know that trying to push Reggie on this would just end up with her losing her new friend. “Hey, so what can you tell me about your boys?”

Reggie’s head jerked up. “Wait, really?”

Julie smiled. “Reg, you hang out with four super cute guys. Although specifically, what can you tell me about Alex that I missed out on? I need to figure out if he gets the shovel talk or if I have to give that to Willie.”

As Reggie launched into an enthusiastic character analysis of his friend, Julie smiled to herself. Reggie was one of the kindest souls she’d met, and something about his genuine joy with the world soothed that part of her that felt raw and exposed from being in the city where she first fell in love with music.

Something about these boys gave her faith that perhaps she would find her way back to it.

**********************************************************************************

Flynn, Luke decided approximately three minutes after starting the car, was the most terrifying person he’d ever met in his entire life, and he would probably have started calling her ma’am if he didn’t know she’d likely throw him out of the car for it. 

“What are your thoughts on Julie?” Flynn asked casually, plugging in her phone to start playing music without asking Luke his permission.

“She’s incredible,” he replied automatically. It was the truth – ignoring all the other stuff from the few days he’d known her, it would be enough for him that Reggie felt comfortable enough to essentially crawl into Julie’s lap for cuddles. Reggie, much like a puppy, was an excellent judge of character most of the time. 

“White boy, so help me if you hurt my best friend I will make sure no one finds the results of my revenge.”

“Woah woah woah!” Luke said, shooting her a scared look. “I barely know her, Flynn!”

Flynn looked at him skeptically. “You like her though. What you know of her.”

He blushed and busied himself with pulling into the lot. “Well, yeah. She seems amazing. And Reggie likes her, which is a good sign.”

“Reggie likes everyone.”

Luke snorted quietly as he got out the car and they fell into step to enter the small Chinese restaurant. “No he doesn’t. Reggie is pretty careful about the people he lets into his life. You ever seen a dog deciding to like someone?”

Flynn nodded as they fell in line. “Yeah, the dogs in Central Park go nuts for Jules.”

“Reggie is like that. He has an amazing intuition for people he can trust. If he didn’t like Julie, we would have closed ranks, previous friendship with Alex or not.”

Flynn made a quiet ‘huh’ noise as they moved forwards. “I didn’t realize.”

They were quietly drawn into their own thoughts as they waited, Luke placed his order, and they moved to the side to wait. Sliding into the cracked leather of the booth to the side, Luke examined Flynn with interest.

“Do your braids take long to make?” he asked.

Flynn shrugged. “It’s a matter of perception.”

“They’re amazing.”

A genuine smile broke over Flynn’s face, cracking her protective demeanour and giving him a glimpse at the girl who danced with her friends and sang Dancing Queen at her best friend on a crowded pier just to cheer her up. He wanted to ask about the dancing, but as Flynn began to discuss braids and the importance of taking care of natural hair properly, he decided it could wait. He wanted to bask in the security of Flynn not being suspicious for just a little longer.

“Would you be able to wear a wig?” he asked when they were toting food back to his car, stacking it in the back seat. 

She frowned. “You mean a weave?”

“No, a wig, like the ones Carrie and her group were wearing in their performance that Alex showed me.” He grinned over at her. “I see light pink wigs are popular with the teenage  
population of today.”

Flynn snorted. “I don’t think I’d be comfortable in a wig, they’re hot and they itch. And you sound like a grandfather when you talk like that. Aren’t you the same age as us?”

“I’m a month older than Carrie and Bobby,” he said with a superior voice as they slid into the car. She laughed and asked his opinion on music as she plugged in her phone and they rocked out to old school punk – she had a surprisingly good growl on her. It wasn’t until they were spreading Chinese onto the counter of the kitchen that he looked over at Julie, who was laughing with Reggie, and felt a distinct swooping sensation.

Oh.

So that happened.

So that answered the question about what the song was about. 

Luke busied himself with dealing out egg rolls and not looking Julie in the face. Since she was talking to Reggie and Bobby about the movies, it was pretty easy to avoid her eye.

It wasn’t as easy to avoid Alex’s. He was sitting at the counter next to Willie, and he looked between Luke and Julie before raising his eyebrows. Luke didn’t feel very generous towards his friend, the signature first child poutiness coming into play, so he instead gave a pointed look between his hand and Willie’s, lying side by side on the countertop as the others debated food.

And then Alex did something Luke didn’t think he’d have the nerve for.

His pinkie linked through Willie’s.

Alex’s face was blushing a darker red than Luke had thought possible for a human, but he gave a Luke a pointed glance – almost like he was saying “you no longer have an excuse, I have anxiety and I did it, man up.” And then there would probably be a sarcastic comment about how Luke had worn sleeves every day for the past week and hadn’t utilized his “best feature” (he is more than just a set of biceps, thank you very much) to try to win over Julie. Luke screwed his face up and stuck his tongue out.

“Are you okay?” Willie asked in concern, catching sight of Luke’s face as he covered Alex’s hand completely with his own.

Everyone turned to look at him, before Reggie said cheerfully, “It’s okay, that’s Luke’s thinking face. If you pay attention, you’ll smell smoke too.”

“Don’t worry, he doesn’t usually hurt himself too badly,” followed up Bobby, amidst the giggles at Luke’s expense. He grinned at his friends before throwing a dishcloth in Reggie’s face. 

That started a brief war between the boys, struggling around the island, before Julie cried out, “Robert Trevor Wilson you put down that carton of noodles RIGHT NOW.”

They froze, all looking at Bobby, who indeed had lifted a carton of noodles and seemed ready to fling them at Nick. Bobby guiltily put them down, grumbling about someone being a buzzkill. 

Everyone took up their plates and chopsticks and returned to the den to eat and watch as Tony Stark went through the process of resettling into his life. Luke struggled to focus though – he’d dropped to the floor beside Reggie with a leg thrown over the bassists, on the assumption that the others would want to take the couch. Most of them did, but rather than sitting between Carrie and Flynn, Julie had folded her legs and gracefully landed on the ground on Reggie’s other side, nudging him with her foot at the entertaining parts and whispering commentary to him. Every time she turned, he would get a whiff of her hair gently wafting a smell in his direction, the same vanilla smell as before. This time it was paired with the starch of potatoes from her and Reggie’s earlier cooking attempts, a combination that should not have worked but somehow was intoxicating.

When the movie was beginning to draw to a close, Julie reluctantly got to her feet. “I’m stuffed, guys. I think I’m going to go crash.”

“But it’s only 8,” Carrie objected, a strange glint in her eyes.

“Yes, but I’m tired,” Julie said patiently, an emphasis on her last word. “Be quiet when you guys come up, kay?”

“I’ll go with you,” Flynn said, though she seemed reluctant to take her legs away from where they were holding Reggie up. 

Luke was briefly disappointed as the two girls left – he was in a weird space where he both wanted to be around Julie and wanted to avoid her at all costs, a textbook sign of his crush forming – but realized that it was what he needed. He would sneak out alone, since there was no real reason why any of the boys had to be there, give the jacket back to Rose (assuming she was there) and get back before anyone was the wiser. 

But as he got to his feet, he heard the cursed words coming from Carolina Wilson.

“Hey, Luke? What are the odds-“

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Kudos and comments appreciated, and if you really want to yell at me come find me on Tumblr at @angelofarts (I'm mostly a fiber artist blog but I'll answer asks if you guys have).
> 
> Have a good day everyone :)


	14. “Please never say the word ooze ever again.”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The girls get ready to go to the club, Luke discovers a technicality, and we're all going to want to hit him with a shoe because of his obliviousness (it's okay, Luke, we love you dearly).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Greetings! No trigger warnings as far as I know, but as usual please tell me if I've missed something. 
> 
> Fake internet points if you catch my pet peeve as a psychology student, and more if you catch my book reference.
> 
> If there are any scenes I'm missing, or if you'd like to see a scene in an alternative POV, please let me know and if I can, I'll post it as a oneshot outtake.
> 
> This chapter dedicated to everyone who left me those incredibly sweet comments on the last chapter and almost made me cry. You guys are so so sweet and I am so happy that I found this incredibly supportive community in the fandom.

Julie was patiently threading green ribbons through Flynn’s braids, being careful not to hurt her, when the sounds of raised voices came from the stairs. Before she could do more than exchange a look with Flynn in the mirror, the voices faded and footsteps were coming towards the door.

“Julie?”

Julie frowned and set down the ribbons, moving from the bathroom to open the door.

“Hey, Reggie, what’s wrong?”

Reggie looked nervous. “Can I sit with you guys for a little bit? Luke and Carrie are yelling at each other and I don’t want to be there.”

“Of course,” she said, opening the door wider to let him in and hoping Flynn would be able to get her ribbons out fast enough that Reggie wouldn’t see them. “What are they yelling about?”

“Carrie wants to sneak out and wants Luke to cover for her.”

Julie rolled her eyes. “That seems unnecessary. Carrie is sneaky as heck.”

“Yeah but Trevor has been checking in more,” Flynn said, emerging sans ribbon. “Carrie might actually get caught by her dad if she tries to go out tonight.”

“Why is Luke mad though?” Julie asked, turning back to Reggie. He was lying flat on his back on Carrie’s bed, doing a snow angel movement as he did. 

“I think Luke wanted to go out too,” Reggie replied, closing his eyes and letting tension melt out of him. “He wanted to go to The Lot or something to find a girl. He always crashes here afterwards so his parents won’t find him.”

Julie understood – if she still lived in LA, she would probably do the same and avoid home. 

That didn’t stop the pain that unexpectedly hit her. She had to remind herself that she and Luke barely knew each other. He was welcome to find whoever he wanted to whenever the fancy struck him.

Reggie saw her face and hurried to reassure her. “No, no, its okay! He wants to give her something, I think? He very much likes you, and everyone can see it. You two are like, electric. You ooze chemistry.”

A masculine groan came from the door. “Please never say the word ooze ever again.”

Julie saw Willie and Alex there, holding hands. Willie was slouching against the doorpost like he was keeping it upright, and Alex was ramrod straight and seemed nervous, but he was also blushing whenever he looked at their hands. Julie let herself smile – they made a good couple, and she was happy to see her friends happy. She just hoped they would remember that at the end of the week, Willie had to go back to New York and finish his school year. 

“What’s the update on the situation?” Flynn asked, plonking on the bed next to Reggie and gesturing the boys further in. Willie pushed away from the door, pulling Alex along with him, and they sat on Carrie’s fluffy white carpet while Julie sat on Reggie’s other side. He immediately put his head in her lap, reminding her of one of the small dogs she saw sometimes in Central Park, who would nudge people’s hands to ask for pets. She obediently began to run her fingers through his hair.

“Luke is trying to back out of the game,” Alex reported. “Carrie is insisting that it’s against the rules and he has to let everyone have their first turn before he can.”

“That’s not how we play it,” Reggie said mildly.

Julie grinned as Flynn agreed, and Willie snorted. “Bold of you to assume Carrie doesn’t come up with additional rules on the spot. She seems determined to get out tonight.”

“I mean, we did have plans,” Flynn said, shrugging. “Bobby keeps telling us about the club, and we wanted to go check it out.”

“I thought you were tired,” Alex said slyly. Flynn and Julie stuck their tongues out at him in tandem. 

“I only just started dancing again,” Julie said, carefully skirting the fact that they’d already been to the club once. “I thought maybe, in a less pressure environment…”

“I get it, Julie-bean,” Alex said gently, smiling. “For what it’s worth, I don’t think you really need a distraction. As long as you leave music on softly or something, Trevor will assume you’re in here, and then he sleeps in a soundproof room.”

“Can I call you something cute too?” Reggie asked from her lap, where Julie’s hands had begun to braid the longer hair on top of his head without conscious direction. “I feel left out. We don’t do nicknames.”

“We call you Reg,” Alex objected.

“That’s not a nickname, that’s laziness,” Flynn dismissed, going to the vanity and beginning to pick out nail polish. “You guys want?”

“Can you do me black?” Alex asked. “Just for the night though, I have morning shift tomorrow.”

“You can call me something if you want,” Julie told Reggie, who smiled. “What are you thinking?”

“Not sure yet. I’ll think of something though. The best nicknames have personal history attached, like how Trevor still calls Alex Hotdog.”

Willie snorted out loud as the yelling downstairs started again. “Hotdog? This I have to hear.”

“It’s Luke’s fault and he should have to bear the consequences of this decision,” Alex grumbled without heat, giving Flynn his left hand when she folded onto the ground and gestured. As he spoke, she spread his hand on his knee and began to paint with careful strokes. “Last year just before a gig, we went to get streetdogs, and Reg insisted on these ones from a place near the Orpheum, right?”

“They’re the best,” Reggie objected, sitting up and pointing at Alex accusingly. Julie took the chance to slip from under him and go to Carrie’s vanity, where five wigs were lined up. Sitting in front of them was the white fedora she’d taken from her dance partner at their first battle. 

“Anyways,” Alex said pointedly. “The place had like an F code from the city and we all got really bad food poisoning from the food. We were all sick for like three days, and while these chumps got off lightly, I had to go to the ICU for a day and a half.”

“That’s absolutely tragic,” Willie said, eyes glittering with amusement and a full blown grin across his face, “but you should absolutely know that I am never calling you anything except Hotdog for the rest of my life.”

Julie giggled as she chose the aqua wig and its accompanying hairnet, setting them to the side. Carrie had advised the girls to change their look every night they went to the club to be safe, and though Julie knew it would be a nightmare to get all her hair into the net, she’d rather not be arrested just a few weeks before graduation. 

“Boys, help me pick a dress?” she asked, holding up the two options. The first was black leather with turquoise paint and studs, to be paired with combat boots. The second was white, bell shaped and had lace over the top, creating a false neck, to be paired with gladiator sandals.

Alex pointed at the leather dress. “Add a vest or something, and you’re good to go.”

Julie hesitated before going to the small collection of her mom’s clothes – she was terrified of losing something else of hers, but as long as she didn’t take off the leather vest with lacing up the side, she figured she would be safe. 

“Perfect,” Flynn declared, finishing Alex’s first hand. “Yo, skater boy, finish Alex’s hands. My girl and I need to go get dressed.”

“We can cover for you two,” Alex volunteered, blushing slightly. “I don’t feel like following Luke to another questionable decision, and Reggie and Bobby are already asleep.”

“’M not asleep,” Reggie protested, his face in Carrie’s pillows. Julie smiled fondly at him as Flynn laughed and began to dig out her own clothes, following Julie to the bathroom to get dressed and do facial paint.

“Dang girl,” Willie whistled when they emerged. “Looking fiiiiiiiiiiine!”

Julie and Flynn struck poses for the boys, laughing as they did. Flynn had done Julie’s butterfly again, while Julie had painted a small collection of vines straight across Flynn’s eyes. Paired with a bright green shirt, slim fitting yoga pants and combat boots that matched Julie’s, she did indeed look fierce. 

“Where’s Reggie?” Flynn asked as Carrie barged in, snatched up the purple wig, and began to haphazardly get ready. “And did you win your argument?” The second bit was addressed at Carrie. 

“I won,” she said smugly, changing to a cropped lavender cardigan and white shorts with ballet flats. “And Reggie went to keep pouty Luke company with my brother, who passed out.”

Alex snorted. “Figures. He’s like a cat.”

“Girls, we have to hurry,” Carrie continued. “I got Bobby’s keys, but I don’t want to be driving too long.”

“Bobby doesn’t have his license though,” Alex said, in the tone one would talk about the sun coming out on a rainy day. 

“Dad got him a car when I moved to New York,” Carrie said impatiently, grabbing her purse. “It’s not my fault I passed the test and he didn’t. Have fun, be safe, don’t do anything we wouldn’t do.”

“That takes all the fun out of it,” Willie protested as the girls left the room. Julie was left with a glimpse of Alex’s face as Willie whispered something to him, going impossibly soft, and felt her heart both swell and break a little.

It had been so long since Alex looked that happy.

Julie only hoped it would last.

**********************************************************************************

Luke was pouting in front of the TV with a softly snoring Bobby next to him. He had been backed into a corner and he knew it. Carrie hadn’t played fair.

“And you’re sure they said they’re going out?” he asked Reggie again. Reggie, in the process of throwing gummy bears in the air and catching them, made a noise of assent.

“Said they were going to The Lot,” Reggie said, once the bear had been eaten. “Julie only just got dance back, so she wants to go try it out at a local scene.”

Luke started – he hadn’t realized dance was so new to Julie. He had assumed it was just performing music that made her so sad about her mom, but it seemed she had avoided everything to do with it. Luke couldn’t imagine that, but then again his mom wasn’t supportive the way Alex had said his Aunt Rosa was. And Luke’s mom was still here. 

Ignoring the pang of guilt that struck him, he looked consideringly at the door. Poking Bobby proved he was down for the count, so Luke gestured to Reggie to follow. And sweet, sweet Reggie, who had blind loyalty to a fault, followed as Luke made his way to the girls room, to try to talk to Carrie about her decision.

Only to find Alex and Willie in the room instead. 

Alex had put on his Spotify, playing a pop song quietly through Carrie’s speakers that Luke was almost sure was performed by a Broadway singer (he listened when Alex spoke! Just… not particularly closely when it involved Broadway), and he had his head bent over Willie’s hand, painting his nails white. Luke was almost regretful that Alex couldn’t see how Willie was looking at him, face soft and open, because Alex needed to know more people saw him as he was, an incredible person with a heart as large as the Pacific Ocean and more talent in his fingernail than most people had in their entire bodies. 

“Hey,” he said softly, trying not to break the mood. “Have the girls left already?”

Alex nodded, not shifting his focus from Willie’s nails. “About ten minutes ago. Why?”

Luke sighed dramatically and propped his arm on Reggie’s shoulder, getting a whiff of leather and the lanolin stuff Reggie used to treat his jacket and keep it in good condition. “I was going to appeal to Carrie’s good nature.”

“Carrie has a good nature?”

All four boys jumped at the sound of Bobby’s voice, and Alex swore as his line of paint went rogue. “Dude, don’t DO that.”

“Sorry,” Bobby said as he shuffled in, sounding unapologetic. “Is this still about the girl with the jacket?”

Luke nodded. “I have to at least try to get it back to her.”

“So go,” Bobby told him, waving his wrist. “Nick is already getting ready in my room.”

“But Carrie’s What Are the Odds.” Luke hated feeling helpless, and he felt that way now – torn between getting Rose’s jacket back to her, and the fierce competitiveness that came with a game of What Are the Odds. He hated to lose to Carrie more than he hated wearing sleeves when he performed.

Reggie brightened. “What was Carrie’s phrasing?”

Luke recited what he could remember. “She said I need to cover for her when she goes out.” His eyes lit up. “Reg, you’re a genius! She didn’t say anything about when she got back in!”

Reggie brushed the shoulder of his jacket. “Indeed, I am an Einstein amongst Freuds.”

“Freud was the father of modern psychology,” Willie pointed out mildly.

Alex snorted, going back to his painting. “Literally the entire field of psychology emerged because everyone hated his theories and chose their own, but sure, let’s go with that.”

Luke couldn’t be bothered to listen to an argument he’d heard Alex have with every guidance counsellor they’d seen in middle school yet again, and instead gestured Reggie and Bobby to follow him. When Bobby remained where he was, Luke frowned.

“What’s wrong? Aren’t you coming?”

“Nah,” Bobby said, stifling a yawn. “I actually am really tired, so once you guys are done getting dressed I’m going to bed. I’ll put on music or whatever so if Dad checks, he doesn’t suspect.”

Luke caught his friend in an abrupt hug. “Thanks, man.”

Bobby pretended to hate it, but Luke could see the smile emerging at the corner of his mouth. “Go on. Nickypoo is probably waiting already.”

It was the fastest Luke had ever scrambled into clothes – out of his Poison shirt, into his Screams From the Attic cutoff and sleeveless blue hoodie that Alex and Reggie liked to make fun of. A splash of blue paint across his eyes, comfortable shoes, and he was ready.

Nick snorted when he saw the blue hoodie. “Dude, predictable much?”

“Oh, like your fedora isn’t predictable,” Luke teased as Reggie emerged. “Although that isn’t your normal one, is it?”

Nick touched the grey fedora self consciously as the boys made their way down the stairs. “No, that girl from the first night stole it.” He sounded grumpy about it too – Luke knew he borrowed the hats from Ryan and they were special to him, the same way his sister would use Chad’s old shirts as dresses. 

They all got into Luke’s car, Reggie in the passenger seat and expertly applying eyeliner as Luke pulled out. Luke still didn’t understand how Reggie could do that without accidentally poking his eye out, but it was a concern for a different time.

“Okay, let’s go,” Luke said, pulling into a street two away from the decrepit club. “If you guys see any of them, engage, don’t let them escape, and get me.”

Nick snorted. “Is this a night out or an FBI mission man? Chill, you don’t even know what she looks like.”

“Dark hair,” Luke replied promptly. “Purple hair extensions.”

“Yes, because the lighting in the illegal club we attend is bright enough to see hair,” Reggie said, surprisingly drily. Luke had to admit that Reggie did have a point – the lighting in the club came solely from dim lights hanging from the ceiling and a few strobe lights hanging from the walls. It was hard enough half the time to figure out which of the patrons were his friends – hence their color scheme plans. 

“Let’s just hope she’s in purple again, and take it from there,” Luke said, slightly desperately, before exiting the car. “I need to get her jacket back to her, guys.”

“It’s just a jacket,” Nick muttered, trailing his friends as they got the jacket before approaching the bouncer. A short wait in line, a flash of their fakes and a small cover charge, and they were in. 

The club remained mysterious – at least that was what Luke told himself. In reality, it smelled like spilled liquor and smoke, and the music was loud enough that the ground thumped under his feet. 

“Divide and conquer?” Reggie asked from his shoulder, staring at the crowd of people with absent interest. Luke put the odds of him falling asleep on the way home at about 60/40.

“Yeah,” Nick replied. “Did you see what Carrie was wearing? We don’t want to run into her and the girls.”

Luke laughed as he dragged them in. “You don’t sound convincing, Danforth-Evans. You and Carrie looked pretty cozy this afternoon, don’t think I didn’t notice.”

Nick flushed. “We’re here to find your mystery girl, Patterson. Reggie, did you see?”

Reggie gave them a sheepish grin as they got to the makeshift bar that the club definitely didn’t have a liquor license for. “I heard them talking, but I was making snow angels on Carrie’s bed because her blanket is like, super super soft, and it’s the color of snow? And then while they were in the bathroom I came to find you, Luke.”

Luke sighed. “Okay, well, we know what they look like, right? We’d recognize them under the paint?”

Nick clapped his back reassuringly. “Of course we would. I’ve known them my whole life.”

Luke wasn’t completely convinced, but he didn’t have a chance to reassure himself – their usual bartender had spotted the three boys and brought water over for them, accepting their money with a grin. She was a pretty college age girl that Reggie had tried to flirt with multiple times, but kept striking out with. To be fair, his first attempt had begun with him offering her a Sunset Curve shirt that was ‘size beautiful’, so Luke would have waved him off as well.

“Divide and conquer,” Luke repeated. Nick and Reggie nodded before disappearing into the crowd.

Luke made his way to where he’d been standing last time she bumped into him, figuring it was his best opportunity to get her to find him. He rotated through the area around there, grinning when he spotted Reggie chatting up tall boy with medium brown hair. Before Reggie could get any further, a girl with bright blonde hair came and took the brown haired boy aside, saying something in his ear before they disappeared into the crowd. Reggie, catching Luke’s eye, shrugged and moved back into the throng of things.

Luke shook his head fondly and went to lean against the wall, hoping the slightly higher ground would give him an advantage. He spotted a few wigs, one an especially bright aqua that he thought, with some amusement, looked a little like what one of Carrie’s Dirty Candi friends wore during a performance, and next to it one that was either a dirty white or –

“Lavender,” Luke muttered with a grin. “Gotcha.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, I appreciate the support so so much. I never could have expected this kind of support for my first fanfic, and you guys make me feel so fulfilled in posting this.
> 
> If you have any requests, please let me know. You can come yell at me on tumblr if you want, I'm @angelofarts. It's predominantly a fiber arts blog, but I'm making a cool crochet project for JatP and you can come see the progress there - it's kinda cool.  
> Editing a few hours later to clarify because I didn't realize this needed saying - please come yell at me about JatP and things you like about it, or about this fic and whatever feelings you may have about it. Please do not attack me in my ask box with hate and comments on my appearance. By the nature of it being a fiber arts blog, I do have photos of myself up to show things that I've made in their entirety, and I don't appreciate finding my ask box filled with hate because of how I look. Thank you.
> 
> The song Alex and Willie are listening to is Higher Love as sung by Anthony Ramos and Jasmine Cephas Jones which you should definitely go listen to if you haven't already.
> 
> Comments and kudos appreciated, and I hope everyone stays safe and has a fantastic day!


	15. “If it works for cheerleaders, it works for me.”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We have the club scene! Dancing, flirting, gratuitous use of my favorite songs and mentions of the awful lighting abound.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally, the long awaited time has come! (It feels like it anyways).
> 
> This chapter dedicated to the incredible Odyssey81418 who is just being the Actual Best, scooping up all those fake internet points and with all the comments keeping the Disaster Train going as we start to get towards the emotional high of the story. I'm sorry it took so long, but I hope you like it!
> 
> Musical references to look out for as well! Fake internet points if you get them before going to look where I listed them (I'm having fun with my unlimited power with these points). Also one movie reference, but I will be very impressed if anyone gets it.
> 
> Trigger warnings - Julie has a flashback, but it isn't immersive. Mentions of cigarette smoke and its invasive smell, and mentions of chemotherapy but no details.

Julie entered the club with her arms threaded through Carrie and Flynn’s, looking around by bouncing on her toes to try to see over the other patrons heads. Carrie smiled gently at her.

“I promise, if he’s here, we’ll find him,” she yelled over the excessive bass. “What did he look like?”

Julie thought about it for a second. “Um…”

Flynn let out a loud sound of disapproval – at least, Julie thought she did. “Really, Jules?”

Without waiting for an answer, Flynn led them towards the far end of the makeshift bar where a young woman with curly hair was serving patrons. With a quick conversation, Flynn got them each a bottle of water.

“You guys were there too!” Julie protested, feeling her face heat up. “How come neither of you noticed?”

“I was defending your honor,” Flynn said in a stuffy voice. Julie grinned despite herself.

“And I was getting a new hat,” Carrie added with a grin. At that, both her friends snorted loudly. 

After wracking her brain, Julie offered weakly, “He had blue face paint? And a long coat? Sort of like Luke’s, but beige, I think.”

“Ugh, Luke’s trench coat,” Carrie said, wrinkling her nose with distaste. “Bobby says that thing lives in his car. He only wears it in, like, the dead of winter.”

“It’s spring,” Julie felt compelled to point out.

Carrie waved her off. “Divide and conquer?”

“You sound like a military manual,” Flynn teased, poking her petite friend in the side where her cardigan didn’t protect it. “The Art of Finding Cute Boys?”

“If it works for cheerleaders, it works for me,” Carrie replied. “Come on, girls, lets go save Aunt Rosa’s jacket.”

Apparently the method to do this was for Flynn to hear one of her favorite old school songs – Julie thought it was called Hopeless Romantics or something, though admittedly once they started mentioning bullets she stopped listening too closely – and peel off to go dance to it, leaving Julie and Carrie near the bar trying to look for one guy with face paint. Julie looked around worriedly – the club was packed to capacity, and the lighting was too dim for her to make out most people’s features.

“Do you want to try the booths on the side?” Julie yelled to Carrie. Carrie nodded and the two girls began to cross the dancefloor.

A hand snaked out to rest on Carrie’s shoulder, and she whirled around to confront whoever it was. Julie honestly felt sympathy for the poor person – Carrie did not take lightly to being touched without her explicit permission, and the person would likely be shrunk to the ground by the time Carrie was done. Julie carried on squeezing through people, trying to get to the far wall to the booths with cracked leather seats and probably a few diseases living in the exposed stuffing.

The booths were a bust – one had a passionately kissing couple, one had a group of girls with amazing piercings who had a pleasant yelled conversation with Julie, and the last had a boy in a fedora who was looking morosely towards the dancefloor. She gave him an encouraging smile when he looked at her, but her eyes were already skating away. 

_Okay, Molina. Plan B._

Where had she and the girls been last time the boys battled them? Start from there, retrace her steps.

She moved towards where she could see Carrie’s light wig on the floor, still arguing with whoever had touched her. As Julie pushed past people, spotting Flynn dancing with someone tall and using it as a chance to analyze dancers, the song switched to something that made half the patrons groan and the other half laugh in delight – Summer of ’69, she thought vaguely, with a smile as she remembered dancing with her parents to the song when Carlos was still a baby. 

Carrie spotted her and waved, but the boy behind her took the chance to disappear into the crowd. Julie didn’t blame him, since Carrie was scary as heck most of the time.

“What’s happening?” she yelled at Carrie over the wails about it being the best days of the singers life.

Carrie shrugged. “I started yelling and then he disappeared!” she yelled back. “He sounded familiar though!”

“How do you hear anything over this?” Flynn screeched as she ditched her partner to join the impromptu circle. 

“I don’t!”

Julie wondered if this was what it felt like to be Alex when Luke and Bobby started going, and mentally sent him a bouquet of flowers with her deepest sympathies.

Julie took a second to rehydrate, thinking. Maybe they needed to dance, to draw the boys out?

She turned back into the yelled conversation – somehow in the thirty seconds she’d been distracted, it had gone from the loud music to a debate on getting pizza after they were done. While Julie appreciated their utter confidence that she would get her jacket back, she needed them to focus. 

Summer of ‘69 faded out to be replaced by something with a synthesizer, and the crowd cheered for the DJ as they began to pair off. Carrie took a second to twirl Julie around on the spot, and Flynn clapped for them as she laughed, whooping when Julie completed the twirl by lifting Carrie up in a jump. Julie laughed as Carrie and Flynn caught up their hands and began to mess around, the fun dancing they weren’t supposed to do at school, but that Flynn always did as her warmup anyways.

“I’m going to check over there!” she yelled to her friends. Carrie nodded, before her attention was caught by a boy in a grey fedora, and her smile turned wicked. Julie rolled her eyes and moved from their spot. 

The side of the room was mostly taken up by the few people who were willing to risk the wrath of the bouncers by smoking indoors, and Julie felt like gagging just a little – cigarette smoke not only was the actual worst, but she had to actively fight against the memories of when her mom was in hospital. One of the men getting chemo with her mom had been a chain smoker, and the smell of the smoke was imprinted in his clothes. She had always felt so angry whenever she saw him, a man suffering because of his choices. Her mom had got sick because of pure chance. It wasn’t fair, but then again, the universe wasn’t fair.

_“Don’t be so cynical, mija. We can make our part of the universe fair, at least.”_

For the first time, Julie smiled at the memory, letting herself feel the pain and happiness fully. She let herself remember sitting in the garage studio on the day when her mom said it – she’d come home in a temper, angry at a group of boys who’d been teasing her in her math class and got her into trouble when she turned around to yell at them for messing with her. Rose had been in the small garden area, watering her plants, a half finished song on top of the piano. Her leather jacket had been slung over the back of the couch that Julie was curled up on, and she’d smiled at her daughter with overwhelming love.

“I miss you, Mami,” Julie whispered softly, closing her eyes.

She opened them again with new determination. She was going to get that jacket back. 

Blue was here. She could feel it.

**********************************************************************************

  
Luke was glad he’d thrown the hood of his jacket over his head before the girl in purple had started yelling at him. He hadn’t looked at her long, just long enough to establish she wasn’t Rose, before he started trying to look around to see if there was anyone else in purple that he could see. Not for the first time, he cursed the fact that the club had a sunken dance area.

Once the new Purple Girl was distracted, he took a second to slip aside as Summer of ’69 faded out. He made his way to the edges of the room to try to see what was going on.

He spotted Nick, who was making his way through the crowd to where Purple Girl was yelling with her friends. He thought the girl in green with her braids swept up into a fancy bun on top of her head looked familiar, but from this distance that was an impossible deduction to make with any sense of certainty. He could have just been projecting from his conversation with Flynn about braids at the Chinese restaurant – Luke had been imbued with a great deal more respect for natural hair. 

The girl with the aqua wig and, he assumed from the splashes of dark paint over Purple Girls face, aqua face paint, made her way to the wall where he was propped, making a face at the smell of the smoke that admittedly also had him gagging slightly. He made a mental note to make sure that the inhalers that lived in both his car and Alex’s fanny pack were up to date, just in case something happened and he and Reggie needed them. That came with a reminder to check Alex’s EpiPen's, and then Luke caught himself before he went onto an endless check list – his mom friend tendencies were kicking in, and he needed to focus.

Aqua girl caught his eye again – she was close enough for him to make out her eyes squinting shut, and her mouthing something, though he couldn’t have said what it was.

When she opened her eyes, she made direct eye contact with him, and Luke felt a sense of recognition wash over him. Those brown eyes, that nose scrunch –

This was Rose.

_No it’s not._

Luke frowned at the mental voice that sounded both like petulant Reggie and superior knowing voice Alex. Yes, it was, and his friends could just stop judging him in his mind. That was meant to be private, dang it.

He started to walk closer to her. “Rose?” he yelled over a new song – the same song Flynn had blasted through his sound system, ironically, but he was not going to let that distract him.

Rose jerked like she had stuck her finger in an electric socket, like Reggie at their last Christmas celebration. (Luke made another mental note – no more What Are the Odds at Christmas, and no letting Nick choose Reggie’s dare) Rose looked up at him, seeming to search for his eyes, and Luke remembered the deep hood he had on to shield his face from New Purple Girl. He didn’t push it back, scared that NPG was a friend of Rose’s and she’d lead him over to yell a bit more. 

“Blue?” Rose yelled back, sounding hesitant. Luke was impressed – he didn’t know how she managed to convey emotion when he could barely hear her over the song, and what even was with the music tonight? They didn’t usually play it this loudly, did they?

“I have your jacket!” he yelled, waving his arms. Her face lit up, and he felt another irritating tingle of familiarity. Something in him said he knew this girl, and he didn’t want to get into it right now. It felt like a betrayal to Julie, to spend time with her and start to fall, at the very least, in like with her, only to see Rose and instantly feel sucker punched in the gut.

“Where is it?” Rose yelled, seeming excited. Luke gestured for her to follow him to where Reggie was collapsed in their booth, his head in his hands. Luke would have been worried about him, except he could see Reggie’s leg bouncing in time to the music. He’d also somehow gained a cowboy hat? Luke would have questioned it, but it was clear his questioning would have achieved nothing.

He reached over Reggie to grab the jacket, putting a hand on his shoulder as he leaned in. “Hey, man, you okay?”

Reggie nodded into his arms. “You found her?”

“Yeah, I did. We can go back so you can get some sleep. Meet me at the car in five? I just have to pick up our other freeloader.”

Reggie tilted his head to give Luke a lopsided smile. “Gotcha. This music is giving me a headache, so I’m going to head out now.”

Luke nodded, squeezing Reggie’s shoulder. “I’ll see you there.”

He handed Reggie the keys before turning back to Rose, offering her the jacket. Her face broke into a massive smile, her eyes almost squinting shut, as she reached out to take it. Luke was worried she was about to start crying as she slipped it over her shoulders and sniffed the collar deeply.

She gave him a playful grin. “Chinese food?” 

He shrugged, grinning sheepishly, as she patted for an inside pocket. He assumed it was like the hidden one in Reggie’s jacket, where Reggie kept songs and guitar picks and occasionally weirder stuff, and were Luke put his phone occasionally. Rose seemed panicky, before finding the zip and bringing out an envelope with cursive written across it.

Luke glimpsed the edge of the writing, seeing it say Love, Mom, and suddenly was overwhelmingly grateful that he could get the jacket back to her. Rose was clutching the envelope like it was made of gold, and after how he’d seen Julie struggle occasionally, he wouldn’t have been able to take it if he’d found it. Although, admittedly, if he’d thought to look in the pocket he probably would have. The boys did say his middle name was Impulsive for a reason.

“Thank you,” Rose yelled, shooting him one last smile before disappearing. Luke’s eyebrows shot straight up, and he felt his mouth twist into a grin. No, she didn’t. Not this time.

He tracked the progress of her aqua wig, which was much easier to track than her purple hair extensions had been, and through a combination of pushiness and fast walking, caught up to her in the middle of the floor. He let his hand whisper across hers, conscious of her tiny but terrifying friend and his desire not to be yelled at again. 

Rose turned to him, seeming surprised as they came under one of the few lightbulbs. Although that expression could have just as easily been confusion, disgust, or tired. (Tired is an emotion, shut up Alex, you feel that in your soul.)

“Dance?” he yelled as the song switched out. The new one sounded like the guy with curly hair that Nick had a crush on – Shawn something – and a slow, deep bassline. Rose gave him an appraising look before a smile spread over her face slowly and she nodded.

Huh, a gap in her teeth. Like Julie’s. Cute.

Wait, Julie. Shouldn’t Luke be trying to get back to the Wilson residence? What if Julie was here and saw him dancing with Rose and got the wrong idea? Then again, would she recognize him? It was the first time he was wearing a sleeveless shirt, and Alex liked to tease him that it was his most defining feature.

His thoughts came to a screaming stop as Rose lifted her arm to prop it on his shoulder, her hand curling just slightly behind his neck, as she began to move to the rhythm. Luke matched her, watching with shallow breaths as she lost herself in the music. He couldn’t tell if her eyes were open or shut – his kept fluttering closed as he got lost in the rhythm – but his senses were invaded with the scent of vanilla and cinnamon as she moved, followed by leather from her vest and jacket, and a hint of lanolin that he recognized from Reggie’s jacket upkeep.

The song cycled through to Guillotine, and Rose’s eyes fluttered open. She started to reach up, to push Luke’s hood back, her fingers gently trailing his jaw, and here it was, he was ready, ready for her to see him, ready for ANYTHING –

“POLICE RAID!”

– except that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Songs mentioned:
> 
> Hope Less Romantics by Make Out Monday (my second favorite of their songs)  
> Summer of '69 by Bryan Adams  
> Say My Name (RAC Mix) by Odessa ft. Zyra  
> Married in Vegas by The Vamps  
> Bad Reputation by Shawn Mendes  
> Guillotine by Jon Bellion
> 
> If I missed anything, please let me know, and if you have questions, or requests, please let me know! Have a good day, stay safe, and stay away from seagulls with one eye.


	16. “Sure, you can hack a police car.”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The police raid fallout ft. Luke getting stuck in a window

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning!!! Julie has the beginning of a panic attack at the beginning of the chapter. If you'd rather not read this, skip to where the text says, "a hand gripped Julie's wrist tightly". A second possible trigger a little further on, skip from "Julie thought Flynn nodded" until "the girls quietly snuck to the corner".
> 
> Please suspend disbelief for anything weird going on in this in terms of tech - I'm not a hacker, and I'm basing this mostly on a half remembered episode of MacGuyver. 
> 
> Chapter dedications at the end.
> 
> Sorry if it's a weak chapter - I had a lot of sun exposure today and I just so desperately wanted to move on to Tuesday in the fic.

_Oh no_

_oh no oh no oh no_

_blue lights and sirens and people panicking and can’t breathe can’t breathe can’t bREATHE NEED TO GET OUT._

A hand gripped Julie’s wrist tightly and she was drawn back into her mind, out of the worst night of her life. “Rose, we need to go!”

Right. The club. Blue.

Julie twisted her wrist out of his grip and stumbled towards the door, but another hand caught her. She turned, ready to attack Blue, but that was the wrong skin tone and –

“Flynn!” Julie yelled in relief, feeling like she could cry at the sight of her best friend. Flynn shot the police lights a concerned look – she knew Julie didn’t handle any memories of the night her mom passed well – but Julie shook her head. Now was the time to escape, not to linger on memories.

The girls tried to push towards the door, but Blue caught her wrist again and Julie felt like she was going to hyperventilate.

“Stop touching me!” she hissed at him. He held up his hands in acknowledgement, pointing towards the door.

“That’s going to be backed up!” he yelled. “Follow me!”

Julie gave Flynn a scared look, but her friend gave her a nod. Julie took a deep breath and nodded at Blue, who offered her his hand. She took it, trying to fight past the panic of touching someone – on the night when her mom died, she’d been held by Carlos, who was terrified when she started to scream. 

Blue led them to a door half concealed at the back of the club. Julie wouldn’t have known it was there if he hadn’t pointed it out to her – it was painted black, which was probably another violation of the club, and had been propped open once upon a time with a broken brick. Right now, it had a few people slipping through. Blue guided Julie and Flynn through, and as soon as Julie got to the clear air, she ripped her hand free from his grip, curling into her jacket. 

“I have to go find my friend,” Blue said, looking to Flynn. Flynn wasn’t paying attention to him, her focus on Julie, but that didn’t stop him. “Do you want me to look for your friend?”

Julie thought Flynn nodded, before Blue went back into the club, but it was difficult for her to focus. Why was everything slightly blurry? And it was LA in the middle of spring, why was she so cold so _cold so cold so cold_

“Julie,” Flynn said, her hands coming up to cup Julie’s face. “Jules, I need you to breathe with me, okay? Come, match my breaths.”

Julie forced herself to pay attention to Flynn, drawing in when she did, releasing when she did. When Flynn released her, Julie had no idea how much time had passed, but she felt less shaky, and she knew if she had to she would be able to walk out. 

The girls quietly snuck to the corner to check the raid. There, multiple dancers and staff were lined up at the car – Julie had the presence of mind to be thankful that they were both in dark clothes so they wouldn’t be spotted – but as she watched, someone broke away from the cop they were being led by.

It was the college bartender that had got the girls their water, laughing as she pounded past, her curly hair waving past on the wind as she easily outstripped the officer chasing her. Julie smiled despite herself as she and Flynn ducked behind the dumpster – the girl reminded her of her mom, the stories she would tell Julie about the clubs she went to and raids she evaded (inevitably with Ray shaking his head in the background, begging her not to make their daughter a criminal until she was at least nine).

Her attention caught again as she was in the process of taking off her wig and hairnet – two people being led out side by side. One was wearing a dark grey fedora, washed out by the lights of the police cars, and the other had a light purple wig on.

“Carrie,” Flynn moaned quietly, resting her weight against the wall. Julie bit her lip anxiously. 

“We have to do something,” she hissed. “Carrie can’t go to prison. Trevor would never let her go back to New York with us.”

Flynn nodded. “But what? It’s not like we have Willie here to help us hotwire a car or, or hack a Bluetooth signal or something!”

“Bluetooth, that’s genius!” Julie exclaimed, scrambling to get her phone. 

One of the things she’d learned in New York when her brother moved to a new school was a small amount of coding. She didn’t know as much as Carlos, who was a genius at it (and would probably get along really well with Reggie, now that she thought about it) but she knew enough to get past a basic firewall, even off her phone.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m going to get those cars to play something so Carrie can run away.”

Flynn groaned, sliding to the ground with apparently no concern for the questionable substances pooled there. “Okay, yeah, sure. Why not? Not like anything else during this entire trip has made sense. Sure you can hack a police car.”

“Shush,” Julie hissed, concentrating. Her fingers flew over the small screen as she typed, until –

“I’m in! What do I play?”

“What, there’s options?”

Julie nodded. “That car over there, the one I got into, has a wifi signal. I can play anything off of Spotify, but I only have about half a minute before the system finds me and kicks me out.”

“How do you know how to do this?!” Flynn groaned. “Um, play Despacito.”

Julie shot her a flat look, but Flynn held firm. With a shrug, Julie did as told, turning the volume up as high as she could.

She chose the version with Justin Bieber for two reasons. The first was that every time she and Flynn visited the apartment where Carrie on paper stayed over the weekends (she had a bed at the Molina household that she used more often) Flynn thought it was the funniest thing in the world to say, “Alexa, play Despacito” whenever they entered, claiming she needed entrance music. The second was that Julie honestly hated it with a burning passion. There was no way Carrie would miss that signal.

A low voice whistled as the song began, slowly building to the vocals. “How did you do that?”

Julie whirled around, her hair flying partially into her face. She swiped it away in irritation.

“Where did you come from?!” Flynn demanded, seeming confused as well. The boy in the black cowboy hat drew it off, wiping at his face, before a friendly face emerged. 

“Wait, Reggie?!”

“Oh, hey Julie! Hey Flynn!”

**********************************************************************************

Luke didn’t know how Nick managed to get himself caught – he hadn’t been able to see the blond since he’d peeled off at the club to search for the others. When he snuck back into the club, he had to duck behind one of the booths to escape the lights the police were shining to try to flush out the last of the dancers and employees who’d taken cover.

“Where are you, Nick?” Luke muttered, cursing when he stepped into a puddle of spilled liquor. He was beyond worried for his friend, but he was also worried about Rose – the lighting outside the club was almost worse than inside, but he had been able to see the whites of her eyes as they widened, and he had heard her breathing speeding up rapidly. 

He could only hope her friend (he’d heard Rose yell her friend’s name, something that sounded like Jim, but a woman had yelled directly in his face right after) would help her. 

The answer was the bathroom it seemed – Luke recognized the fedora Nick was wearing, as well as the light purple wig on the girl at his side as they were led out. The wig was mussed up though, pushed slightly to one side, and the girl was limping slightly. 

Just as Luke was about to debate trying to rescue Nick by causing a diversion, Nick tried to make a break for freedom, twisting out of the officer’s arms, breaking free. Before Luke could applaud, mentally of course, Nick turned and –

Oh heck, Nick, there are better times to be chivalrous than when you are staging a prison getaway!

Nick had stopped, turned to New Purple Girl, and tried to offer her his hand. While Luke could appreciate the sentiment, the result was a little more messy – Nick was taken down by his officer before any of them could blink. 

“Why couldn’t you be selfish just this once, my dude?” Luke muttered, ducking back down and trying to think. He had been in the club a good few minutes, and if he wasn’t careful he’d be caught as well. Wouldn’t that just be the proof his parents needed that his friends were a bad influence? 

Okay, they just cleared the bathrooms. He had a few minutes before they’d check them again, didn’t he?

He tried to be sneaky, he really did. Luke liked to think of himself as a sneaky person (shut up, mental Alex) and usually, he was pretty good at getting around without people hearing him. So he figured something out there was deliberately screwing with his balance, that he tripped and made a small ‘oof’ noise when he caught himself. 

The cop rounding out the group that had come in froze at the noise, slowly turning. “Come out with your hands up, and we won’t hurt you.”

Luke started mentally compiling both a story for his parents and every rude word he could think of. Preparing himself, he began to come out from the side of the bar, only to hear –

“COMIN’ OVER IN MY DIRECTION!” 

“What the?!” the officer yelled over the sudden noise, turning to the door. The music continued to blare out, distracting the officer long enough for Luke to get into the bathroom. 

Well. Bathroom was one definition for the room. It was about as sanitary as the club, but the important thing was it had a window, and one that Luke should be able to squeeze himself out of.

Or. You know. Get halfway stuck in, until Reggie heard him yelling and came to pull him out properly. 

Luke landed heavily on the bassist, groaning. “Sorry, man.”

“It’s all good,” Reggie said, though the way he got to his feet and immediately bent at the waist to inhale belied the sentence. “You missed Julie and Flynn.”

A wave of relief swept through Luke. “They got out okay?”

“Yeah, Julie did something to that cop’s car? She like, hacked it?” Reggie seemed far too nonchalant that their new friend (could he call Julie a friend yet? Was it too soon? Was he overthinking this?) had probably committed a crime. “She distracted them long enough for Carrie to get loose.”

“Oh thank goodness,” Luke said on an exhale. “And Nick?”

Reggie nodded, bouncing, before clutching his head. Luke grimaced in sympathy. 

“Nick is probably waiting for us at the car. Come on – I have painkillers and water there.”

Luke and Reggie walked carefully together to the car, dodging out of sight of a few policemen here and there. When they got there, Reggie leaning slightly on Luke for support, Nick was hiding behind it, but seemed relieved to see them.

“Did Carrie get out okay?” Luke asked as he opened the doors for them to get in. 

Nick nodded. “I saw her break free when the car started playing randomly.”

“You owe Julie for that, by the way,” Reggie told him, after drinking his water and a painkiller. “She, like, hacked the car.”

“She did WHAT?”

That was their conversation sorted, as Reggie retold how he found Julie and Flynn in an alley near the club, watched Julie hack a police car (?????) and get it to play an annoying pop song. According to Reggie, Nick had taken the opportunity to break free then, as had Carrie, and Flynn and Julie had chased after their friend.

“I hope they get back alright,” Nick said, biting his lip as Luke got to the gate of the Wilson residence.

Luke snorted. “I hope they get back after us. I don’t want to face Carrie’s wrath when we point out her technicality.” Although admittedly, their game rivalry seemed less important when Luke had been faced with the possibility of actual jail. 

The boys got out of the car, trying to sneak in quietly through the side door. It almost worked, too – the umbrellas that Reggie had knocked over previously ended up being their giveaway as he stumbled over them, sending them crashing to the ground.

A light in the living room flicked on. 

“Good evening, boys. Mind telling me where you were?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dun dun duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun. Any guesses as to who caught them?
> 
> This chapter dedicated to (There's a list):  
> juliathephantom (knitsessed) for her encouragement in getting this out when I was feeling overwhelmed, and you should all go check out her fic Hearts on Fire, it's amazing  
> Marichatshipper for being so enthusiastic about the music  
> Odyssey81418 for enthusiasm, the reread with comments that had me in stitches, and inspiring the oneshot about Willie with the monkey (you should go check it out!)  
> NorthernLights025 because your last comment legitimately made me snort ("she reminds you of Julie BECAUSE SHE IS JULIE")  
> The one person who has me as a user subscription (I don't know if there's a way to see who that is but I appreciate you!)  
> The 7 people with bookmarks on the fic  
> And the 27 (!!!) people who subscribed to the fic. I say it so often but thank you so much, I never could have dreamed for this level of support.
> 
> Songs mentioned:  
> Despacito by Luis Fonsi ft. Daddy Yankee (I, like Julie, prefer the original)  
> And specifically because Marichatshipper mentioned music last time, the song I listened to on repeat for this was Fallin' (Adrenaline) by Why Don't We. It has no plot relevance, I just enjoy it.
> 
> On the topic of fake internet points, there is a reference in WYFYPKYOLAA (I need a better shortened version of that) that no one seems to have found yet...
> 
> Hope you enjoyed! As usual, if I've missed anything, please let me know (especially spelling, grammar or anything like that, I had a lot of sun exposure today so I wouldn't be surprised if this is rife with typos). If you want to see any scenes from a different characters perspective, any 'off screen' moments or anything at all like that, please let me know, I'd be happy to oblige. If you'd like to see my kind of cool JatP crochet project, go check out my Tumblr @angelofarts, I should have progress photos up tomorrow.
> 
> I think that's everything? Stay safe, have a good day, hope you enjoyed, and please stay away from hotdogs in dodgy alleys.


	17. “How do you walk out of a police raid entirely unscathed and with a gig?”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Police raid fallout, Julie opens her moms letter, and Luke starts to have a revelation and then gets distracted by mentions of a song (I know who I am)
> 
> HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning again. A lot of Julie's perspective is her dealing with the consequences of her panic attack in the last chapter. If you need to, I think you can read Luke's chapter and still basically get all the plot from that. Please please be safe.

Julie paused at the car, clutching her side where the buckles of the jacket dug into her waist. She’d zipped it up, not willing to risk losing it again.

She was a strange mix of elated and horrified. On the one hand, her mom’s jacket. She finally had her mom’s wonderful, cropped leather jacket, the one covered with sequins and embedded with the Rose Molina spirit. Julie could almost feel her mom stroking her hair, whispering soothingly to her that it would all be okay. On the other hand, a panic attack was a draining experience at the best of times, and this was not one of those. She knew with certainty that this was going to get worse before it got better.

Carrie hit the button for the doors to open, and Julie’s attention was grabbed once more. She crawled into the back seat, Flynn and Carrie taking the front. Flynn guided Carrie through a roundabout series of streets until they were on the freeway back to Carrie’s house.

“Hey, Jules, you okay?” Carrie asked, her voice filled with concern.

Julie managed a soft noise of assent. Flynn reached back, flailing her hand until Julie could connect their fingers. Flynn squeezed hers gently, and Julie squeezed back as much as she could from where she had slouched down onto the seat. 

“Do you want music?” Carrie asked. Julie nodded, and Flynn took her hand back to find a song for her. Something soft – the volume of the club had been overwhelming, and now that she had a moment to process, the silence was too much. She needed something quiet to focus on. 

The quiet sound of a piano emerged as Julie closed her eyes, letting the words of both the song and her friend’s quiet chatter wash over her as she grounded and slowed her breathing.

_In and hold one two three four five_

_Out and one two three four five six seven_

One thing she could taste. The taste of the cold air as they zipped down the roads.

Two things she could hear. The piano in the song and the slight rasp of Flynn’s voice from yelling.

Three things she could see. The sequins on her mom’s jacket, the strands of Carrie’s wig where it was trailing over her headrest like an afterthought, and the ribbons in Flynn’s hair, limp and unraveled.

Four things she could smell. The sweat on her body. The leather and lanolin mix of her jacket and vest. The body wash Carrie had used that morning – vanilla and a hint of cinnamon. The smell of new car.

Five things she could feel. The studs on her dress. The sequins on her mom’s jacket. The stitching on the seats. Her hair, ratty after being shoved into a hairnet under her wig. The silhouette of the letter in her pocket, pressed against her arm.

The letter.

The letter the letter _the letter the letter the letter the letter-_

“Jules, we’re home,” Flynn said, gently offering her hand. Julie hesitantly took it, lifting herself to a seated position. Carrie threw her a worried glance, coming around the outside of the car to offer her help.

“Shower, then bed,” Flynn said gently. Julie nodded, shuffling forwards – she was regretting her combat boots. They were terribly uncomfortable. 

When they opened the door, Alex and Willie were sitting on the couch, looking like they were parents waiting to bust a teenager who’d snuck out. One look at Julie and the humor drained from both their faces.

“Bad?” Willie asked, coming to take Flynn’s place on Julie’s left. Carrie released her when Alex came to support Julie on the right.

Julie could only nod her head, jerking it towards Flynn. The boys helped Julie upstairs and into Carrie’s room as Flynn explained what had happened – the raid, the panic attack, and the ride home. Somehow, even though Alex hadn’t known that she suffered from panic attacks after her mom’s death, Julie could not find it in herself to care that Flynn was telling him. Dr. Turner kept telling Julie that her friends loved her and wanted to be able to help. Just this once, she was going to lean on them. 

“Here, Jules,” Flynn said gently, helping to take off the jacket and vest combination. “Alex, Willie, go.”

Willie nodded. “I’m going to yell at Luke, Nick and Reggie when they come in. Let us know when you feel better, Julie-bear.”

Julie managed to give him a weak smile. Carrie moved to the bathroom to start up the shower and get it to the right temperature, while Flynn helped Julie get off the leather dress. When she was done, Julie moved to the bathroom, standing under the water and letting it soak her. 

When she was finished, Flynn and Carrie were both waiting. Carrie had pulled out flannel pajamas that had dinosaurs on the shirt, and Flynn was at the vanity, waiting with conditioner and curl cream. Julie took one look at her two best friends and burst into tears.

“Oh Julie-bean,” Carrie murmured, immediately pulling Julie into her arms. Julie felt the distinctive thud from her other side that meant Flynn also wanted cuddles and had thrown herself headfirst into the mix. “It’s okay, it’s okay. We’ve got you.”

“We aren’t going anywhere, Jules,” Flynn reassured her, squeezing tightly. Both girls ignored the wet spots marring their pajamas from Julie’s hair, holding her gently through the tears. Once they were dry, Julie let them help her get into her pajamas, and Flynn took the time to comb through the products Julie needed to keep her hair healthy.

“Carrie,” Julie whispered. “There’s a letter in my mom’s jacket.”

Carrie reached for Rose’s jacket, patting the pockets until the distinctive crinkle of one of them matched. She carefully pulled out the slightly yellowed envelope, handing it to Julie.

“Are you going to open it?” Flynn asked gently, finishing with Julie’s last curl. A glance at the clock told her it wasn’t even one in the morning yet – so much happening in such little time. 

“I kept thinking,” Julie whispered, “if Blue weren’t there, if I hadn’t got the jacket back, I would have lost this. She would be gone, and I’d never know what she wanted to tell me.”

“Jules,” Flynn said gently as the girls moved to the bed, one on either side of her. “You know exactly what she wanted to say. It’s the same thing she said to you every day. She loves you.”

Carrie nodded, putting an arm around Julie. “If you want to open it, do, but either way, we’re here.”

Julie squeezed her arm. “I love you guys.”

“We love you too.”

With a deep breath, Julie reached for the flap of the envelope.

**********************************************************************************

“You knew we were going!” Luke protested to Alex, who was giving them a deeply judgmental look. Willie just looked tired.

Alex had been the one in the chair, and he had trailed the boys to lecture them as they washed their faces, changed into pajamas, and retreated to Bobby’s room. Bobby was lying on his bed, one arm flung out and his mouth open as he snored, but the boys were ignoring him. Well, Reggie was seeing how many pencils he could stack across Bobby’s open mouth, but Alex had determined it was the least dangerous thing they had done all day, so he was allowing it.

“Julie was caught in that raid,” Willie told him, sounding exhausted. “I thought if you were there, you were going to look out for them?”

“We didn’t know how they were dressed!”

“How difficult is it to spot three girls, one of whom you’ve known since childhood?!”

“I couldn’t spot you in there unless you were yelling directly into my face!”

Nick raised a hesitant hand. “I found Carrie, Alex, when the raid started. And I tried to help her. Do I get points?”

Willie and Alex exchanged a considering look before nodding. Relieved, Nick got to his feet and went to sit with Reggie, leaving Luke to be the sole recipient of the scolding. Luke almost regretted not going to his parent’s house instead – he had the feeling it would have been less painful.

“Willie?”

Three heads swiveled to face the door, before Nick and Reggie heard the small voice and turned. It was Flynn, her braids loose and almost shielding her face.

“Yeah, Flynn?”

“Can you come to our room please? And Alex, you too? There’s something you should see.”

“Do you want Bobby?”

Flynn nodded. “If you guys all want to come, you can, but don’t crowd Julie, okay?”

They nodded. Reggie took the pencils off Bobby’s mouth (he’d achieved a record of 37, though he maintained with more time he could beat it) before nudging Bobby awake. Bobby grumbled something as he pulled the duvet around him like a cape, leading the boys to his sister’s room three down from his own.

In there, Julie was seated against Carrie’s headboard, clutching papers. Her eyes were squeezed shut behind her glasses, her hair loose as it dried, and dressed in a dinosaur shirt and striped flannel pants. Luke thought it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

 _Simp,_ mental Reggie called him.

“Julie-bear?” Willie asked, going to sit next to her. Carrie, curled up at her feet, squeezed her ankle. “Are you verbal again?”

Julie nodded. “I opened it.”

Luke had the idea he and the boys were missing something, especially when Willie gasped and clutched Julie close in a hug. “Julie, that’s amazing.”

Luke moved to sit against the wall. Bobby had taken the hanging chair in the corner of the room and looked to be on the verge of passing out again, while Flynn had sat at the base of the bed with Reggie next to her. Alex sunk down next to Luke, and Nick spent a moment in deliberation before smiling and going to sit with Carrie. Carrie… there was something Nick said about Carrie and the club and - 

“It’s a song,” Julie said quietly, snapping Luke’s attention back to her. “She must have written it just – just before -”

Willie nodded. “She was so strong.”

Carrie grinned. “Remember when she yelled at my mom when she came to visit? It was spectacular.”

“The most terrifying woman and she was five foot nothing,” Flynn agreed, smiling at her friend softly. Julie’s face was soft, pained but also fond. It wasn’t unlike the look on Bobby’s face on the rare occasions he mentioned his absent mother, or when Carrie came into conversation when she was at school. 

“A song?” Alex prompted gently. Right, he knew Mrs. Molina. Rosa.

“Yeah. Willie, can you drive me somewhere tomorrow?”

“Of course. Where do you want to go?”

Julie took a deep breath. “My tia’s house. She moved into it when we moved to New York, and she said she kept my mom’s studio the same. I need to be there when I… when I read it.”

A significant look passed between Alex, Nick and Bobby. Luke and Reggie met eyes before shrugging – this had to do with a shared history, something he wasn’t privy to. Not for the first time, he regretted that he, Bobby and Reggie had gone to a different elementary school to Alex and Nick. 

“I could take you.”

Eight heads swiveled in his direction. 

“Excuse me?”

Luke flushed, but he soldiered on. “I’m taking Alex to work with me since we have morning shifts. I could drop you off where you need to be if you want. That way you aren’t too far out of your way.”

Julie bit her lip consideringly. “Tia’s house is kind of far from the beach, but I could ask Tia to take me if she’s home.” She gave Willie a hesitant smile. “That way you don’t miss any of the lesson.”

“I’d miss a million lessons for you,” Willie said loyally, tugging gently on one of her curls. “Wait, Jules, you’re freezing. Here.”

With the practiced motions of someone whose friends routinely froze, three people took their jackets off – Reggie offered his leather jacket, Luke his grey hoodie, and Willie his blue and red hoodie. Julie shot Reggie and Luke grateful looks but took Willie’s.

“Are your mom’s things safe?” Willie asked quietly. Sensing this was a private conversation, Luke turned to Alex to talk about the specifics of getting to work the next day. Both boys decided to swing home after shift, rather than before.

“Oh hey!” Reggie said, his eyes loose from the painkillers he had taken for his headache. “I forgot, I booked us a gig for Wednesday.”

“How do you walk out of a police raid entirely unscathed and with a gig?” Flynn demanded, sitting straight up. 

Reggie winced. “I wouldn’t say entirely unscathed. This headache is still pretty bad. But one of the guys I escaped with said he was looking for a dance group that had been there on Friday because he needed someone for his café performance on Wednesday and he wanted to talk to them. He sounded kind of desperate, so I told him about us. He’s going to call us in the morning.”

That drew attention to the hour, which meant that Bobby was trying to get everyone to go to bed. In the process of getting all the boys out, Luke caught a glimpse of Alex and Willie quietly saying goodnight in the hallway between their two rooms, smiling shyly at one another. Alex had his fingers twined through Willie’s, and Willie was biting his lip as he looked up at Alex. Luke recognized the look – he had had it for a while too. Alex was not the flashy kind, the guy who shone so brightly you couldn’t see anything around him. He was the quiet presence at the end of the day, the space you crawl into where it’s okay to be vulnerable. The constant presence in the midst of the storm.

Luke smiled to himself as he ducked into Bobby’s room, pulling out his journal. He was beyond happy for his friend – goodness knew Alex deserved the love and affection – but he had also inspired another lyric.

_Here in front of me_

_Shining so much brighter_

No matter how much Rose may have intoxicated him at the club, it was Julie, Julie in her dinosaur pajamas and big glasses, that fascinated him.

He just had to find a way to tell her before Thursday.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song they listen to in the car is the acoustic version of CWJBHN by Jake Scott and Josie Dunn. The songs I listened to while writing this are If You Wanted It Too, We Haven't Looked at Our Phones, Maybe, and Whole Lives by Jake Scott (I'm in a weird mood). 
> 
> If anything I said about Julie's coping doesn't work, please tell me. It's based on a mix of personal experience and research, and Willie and the girls have been present for them before, so they know how best to help Julie, but please, I want to be accurate and respectful, so please let me know if I have to change anything.
> 
> Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy. Any missing scenes, different POV moments, past or during the fic, please feel free to request - they're usually a lot of fun to write. If you want to see my kinda cool JatP crochet project, go check my Tumblr @angelofarts. Once it's finished if I can work out how to embed photos, I'll try to put one at the end of the fic if anyone is interested in seeing? Let me know.
> 
> Stay safe, have a good day, and stay away from ghosts in top hats please.


	18. “Mentally, I will forever be six.”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Julie has her moment, Luke falls even more in love, and the much awaited return of Tia!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning possibly - Julie has memories of her mom. Skip the italicized section and you should be good.
> 
> This chapter dedicated to my new user subscription, the four new people who bookmarked the fic, and the three new people who subscribed to the fic. I'm so glad to have you on the Train Wreck of Obliviousness.
> 
> (Do you guys mind the chapter dedications, or should I stop doing them?)

“Morning, Molina.”

Julie smirked at Bobby as she poured her bowl of cereal. “You look like a zombie.”

“Bold words coming from someone who kept me up past 1am and expected me to be up at 7,” he grumbled, not even trying to push his hair out of his face. “You don’t want pancakes?”

She shook her head, adding milk and coming around the table to sit next to him. “I’m good.” 

They ate in silence for a few second, the only sound their cutlery gently clinking against their plates. It was soothing. 

“That song,” Bobby said quietly, almost like he was scared to break the silence. “Are you going to try to play it?”

Julie bit her lip. “I think so.”

He nodded. “You know you’re welcome to use the instruments in the house.”

“I can’t. This… this needs to be played on Mom’s piano.”

Bobby nodded. “Does your aunt know you’re coming?” 

Julie pulled out her phone to shoot off the text – hopefully Tia wouldn’t be too upset with an early morning visit – and they passed another five minutes in quiet back and forth, talking about Rose and her music. It was still difficult, but in a way, Julie embraced it. The pain hurt because she had so much love spilling through. For the first time since her mom passed, Julie began to think maybe it was a privilege. How fortunate she was, to have had someone so full of love as her mom.

“Good morning,” Reggie chirped, jumping down the last few stairs. He was still in his pajamas – a soft grey shirt and flannel pants similar to Julie’s – but he seemed chipper.

“Your headache gone?” Bobby asked. 

Reggie nodded, grabbing some of the stacked pancakes. “I feel loads better. Oh, Julie, do you mind if I come with you guys? I want to go to the music shop Luke works at. There’s a new bass I want to try out.”

She shrugged. “I mean, it isn’t my car, but if Luke’s happy to take you with, I am too.”

“Sweet!” 

Reggie brought a livelier vibe to the table, joking with Julie about her insane hacking skills and choice of music. When he heard what she’d chosen, Bobby groaned and dropped his head to her shoulder.

“Why, baby Molina? I had such faith in your music taste too.”

She laughed. “To be fair, the club was kind of inspiring? They played the weirdest mix of songs.”

“Did they now?”

That was Willie, sliding down the bannister in his black shirt and black pants. He landed and jumped towards the table, throwing himself into a chair.

“Dude, watch the furniture.”

Willie waved Bobby off. “I want more club details.”

“I want a million dollars,” Julie said drily. “Doesn’t mean I’m going to get them. Besides, I’m more interested in what happened here while we were gone.”

Reggie leaned forwards, elbow on his knee. “Oh, yes, spill the tea Willie.”

Willie flushed. “No, we could go back to talking about Julie. In fact, I would really prefer it.”

Bobby frowned. “Did you guys do something while I was sleeping?” Without waiting, he added, “Just tell me if I need to avoid any areas of the house for the rest of my natural life.”

“Nothing happened!” Willie said, turning red and standing. “I’m going to wake Flynn and Carrie and the boys.”

“Don’t do anything in my bed!” Bobby yelled after him. Willie threw him a rude gesture, triggering a giggle fit between Reggie and Julie. 

When they’d calmed down, Julie pushed water at Reggie. He gave her an enquiring look.

“One of the girls in my art class gets killer headaches,” she explained. “She always says water is essential for self-management. Hydrate or die-drate.”

Reggie let out another snort before obediently downing the drink. “Hey, are you feeling better after last night?”

Julie nodded. “Rest helps. Panic attacks are certifiably The Worst.”

He nodded sympathetically. “We have a list in Luke’s journal for stuff that helps for all of us when we struggle. You should add to it, just in case.”

“Reg, I’m only here until Thursday.”

He jutted his chin out defiantly. “First of all, that’s more than 24 hours away, therefore it doesn’t exist and you’re staying here forever. Second, I want to know how to help if something happens. That’s what friends do for each other.”

Julie waved at her eyes. “Reggie, do NOT make me cry this early in the day.”

“People are crying?!” Flynn groaned, appearing with the others in tow. “Nuh uh, I am planning on have a really good eyeliner day. Stop it.”

“You’re having a jetski lesson,” Alex grumbled, eyes still closed. “Why would you put on eyeliner?”

“Ever heard of waterproof liner, Blondie?”

Flynn and Alex had an interesting dynamic, Julie noted with amusement. Rather like Luke and Bobby, but with more sass. 

Julie turned to greet Carrie and Luke and drew short.

Luke was –

That was –

That was **a whole lot of arm** showing right there. 

Was it hot in the dining room, or was that just Julie? The air conditioning was definitely backed up, wasn’t it?

Luke was still sleepy, his face pillow creased and his hair sticking up on one side. If it hadn’t been for the **incredibly sleeveless shirt** he was wearing, Julie thought her heart might implode from how soft and sweet he looked as he mumbled through getting his breakfast, swinging into the chair next to hers with a murmured, “Morning, Julie.”

Then Julie caught sight of his meal.

“Are those eggs and _peanut butter?”_

“With salt and pepper,” Carrie said helpfully, cutting her apple into slices. “Luke is the weirdest eater I have ever met in my entire life.”

“Alex eats tuna and beans like it’s sugar!” Luke protested, seeming to wake more rapidly as the accusation registered. 

“I’m a healthy eater!” Alex defended. “Meanwhile, you and Reg think food can come from the hood of a car!”

Julie was still stuck on adding salt and pepper to peanut butter. “Luke, I say this from the bottom of my heart. Please invest in health insurance as soon as you can because that cannot be healthy.”

Luke grumbled under his breath, something about being attacked too early in the morning, before defiantly taking a bite of his disturbing breakfast.

“Just needs blueberries,” he muttered quietly. She shot him a look of pure disgust. 

“That’s not –,” Alex began, before seeming to give up. “Yeah, okay.”

Willie reached behind Alex, rubbing his back soothingly, and suddenly the table had something new to make fun of. 

Luke checked his watch and almost choked. “Okay, we need to get going RIGHT NOW or we’re going to be late for shift guys.”

That was enough to get Julie to her feet. She stuck her bowl in the sink, pressed kisses to the top of Carrie and Flynn’s heads in good morning, and began to make her way up the stairs.

“Julie?”

She spun to face Luke, very determinedly not looking at his arms. “Yeah?”

“Where’s your aunt’s house?”

“Los Feliz. You can just drop me off at her street, I know the way.”

His face cleared. “No, that’s cool, that’s like ten minutes away from the strip mall. You have time. Just… not much of it.”

With that in mind, Julie hurried back up the stairs, followed by the three boys.

Julie didn’t have many options, so she went with what she knew she’d be comfortable in – her purple tankini and silver swim shorts, with a white shirt and black writing spelling out TRIPLE THREAT. On top, a camo jumpsuit and to finish out, bright pink shoes.

“You look nice,” Reggie complimented, emerging from Bobby’s room the same time she came out of Carrie’s. 

Julie smiled. “Thanks, Reg. I like your flannel – very 90’s.”

Reggie petted the flannel he had on over his white shirt like a beloved pet as the two descended the stairs to wait for Alex and Luke. Julie took the chance to tame her hair and find her backpack, before the other boys landed at the bottom of the stairs. 

Julie let out an inadvertent snort. “Are you really wearing a beanie in Los Angeles in the middle of spring?”

Luke flushed. “My head gets cold easily, and my mom likes to knit while she watches TV.”

Julie’s face softened. “It suits you. Only, let me just…”

She reached up to straighten the orange beanie so that it partially flattened his hair. Luke flushed, at which point Julie realized how close they were standing to one another and took a flustered step back. That didn’t help though, because now she could see his arms and _Carrie seriously please fix your air conditioning this cannot be healthy._

“Last call to join us,” Alex said towards the dining room. Flynn and Carrie waved them off, while Willie and Bobby were in the process of building a tower with the excess cutlery laid out on the table and were arguing whether forks or spoons would make better watch towers. With a shake of his head, Alex led the way out, shrugging a light blue denim jacket on over his pink shirt.

“Glad you got the nail polish off,” Julie told him, seeing his bare nails. “Black is a brute to get off sometimes.”

Alex smiled softly. “Yeah. Willie helped me.”

“Oooooh.”

Alex snorted. “What are we, six?”

“Mentally, I will forever be six,” Reggie declared grandly, leading their way to the car. “Alex, you want shotgun?”

Luke raised an eyebrow. “You feeling okay, Reg? You always want shotgun. We specifically came up with a schedule for you to have shotgun privileges split evenly with us.”

“I want to sit with Julie,” Reggie said plainly. Julie smiled and hooked her arm through Reggie’s.

“And who says Julie doesn’t want shotgun?” Alex asked.

“I don’t.”

“Molina, you make it very difficult for me to make fun of my friends.”

“Glad to be of service, Mercer.”

Alex, as shotgun, got control over the music and shot down Reggie’s country request. Instead, he gave Luke a knowing look as the beat came in and Luke’s face fell.

“I am not throwin' away my shot, I am not throwin' away my shot, Hey yo, I'm just like my country, I'm young, scrappy and hungry, And I'm not throwin' away my shot!” Alex said with satisfaction, looking in the rear-view mirror to grin at Julie. She laughed and patted the beat for him as he went into the complex rap, and applauded Reggie when he did the backup lines. Luke kept his long suffering expression through a rendition of Helpless where Alex sang directly to him, with Reggie playing Angelica, and then a very vocally impressive rendition of Satisfied where her mouth dropped open at Reggie – he went low instead of high, and the effect gave her goosebumps.

“Please tell me we’re almost there,” Luke begged her, turning down a street. Julie counted off houses before pointing to their old house. 

“That one, please.”

“It’s nice,” Reggie told her, squeezing her hand. “Want us to come with you?”

Julie shook her head. “I’ll text my Tia and tell her I’m here. When you see me go into the garage, I’m good.”

She grabbed her backpack and made her way to the studio, waving goodbye to the boys. They all waved back, before she turned towards the doors. Her aunt sent her a thumbs up, saying she’d be out when Julie said she was ready.

The space was immaculate.

Rose’s plants were alive, flourishing really. The instruments were spotless, the piano covered in a white cloth to protect it from damage. The space had so many memories that she had to stop for a moment and let them rush over her.

_“Mami, scales are hard!”_  
_A musical laugh. “You asked me to teach you, mija.”_  
_“Mom, boys are so dumb.”_  
_“I thought the same thing at eight, honey. You’ll learn to put up with them.”_  
_“Mom, I wrote a song!”_  
_“Congratulations, sweetheart! Come, let me hear it.”_  
_“Mom… I think I’m bisexual.”_  
_“I’m glad you told me, mija. I love you no matter who you love or don’t love.”_  
_“I got in! I got in! I got in!”_  
_“Let’s have a toast! Hot chocolate all around!”_

“I miss you, Mom.”

She took a deep breath and trailed her hand over the sheet, releasing the piano from its confines. It dropped to the ground, quiet as a whisper, and she took a moment to dig out the sheet music.

“I’m so sorry I haven’t been playing,” Julie whispered as she spread it out. “I wasn’t ready. But I think I am now.”

She took a moment to orientate her fingers, finding the keys as familiar as her friendship bracelets. This was her space. This was where she became a musician.

“Here’s the one thing, I want you to know…”

*********************************************************************************

“Luke, don’t.” 

He gave Alex a sour look. “You don’t even know what I was thinking.”

“Your hand is on the door handle. I know exactly what you were thinking.”

“That we should get pizza?”

Luke took a second to shoot Reggie a fond look. “Is everything about pizza?”

“What would be the point otherwise?”

Luke turned back to Alex. “I just want to make sure she’s okay. Five minutes, max, and she won’t even see me.”

Alex weighed up the options. “You’re going to do this regardless of what I say, aren’t you?”

Luke cheerfully nodded, and Alex let out a soft groan. “Okay, we’re coming with you.”

The three boys quietly made their way towards the garage, before Luke drew the other to a stop. “Do you hear that?”

Music. Piano, to be specific, with singing accompanying. The singing seemed to be getting stronger as whoever it was went, and Luke was absolutely floored. That wasn’t the voice of a person, surely. That had to be, like, an angel.

No, not an angel. That implied a level of delicacy. This voice had too much power, too much tight self control. That was the vocal equivalent of a wrecking ball.

“Relight that spark, time to come out of the dark, wake up!”

Luke had to get closer. He had to see who was playing, to convince Julie to get whoever it was to play with them. This was what Bright and Finally Free needed. This was what his music was craving.

“Raising your voice to the rain!”

Raising your voice indeed. The boys got to the door of the garage as the player got to the bridge, her voice soaring until she hit a note Luke could only dream of.

“Hooooome!”

His jaw fell open as she slipped back in like it was nothing, like people just sang like that every day. 

The song trailed to a lighter close through the last verse, making use of catchy chord progressions, and the boys as one peeked through the door.

Julie.

That was Julie playing.

That was Julie playing and singing and Luke had to rearrange everything he knew because clearly this was the centre of the universe. This spot right here, where her perfect voice emerged as she hugged the paper to her chest and –

Oh.

That was what had been in the letter.

Before he could do more than blink, the far door of the garage was opening and another voice, lightly accented, was speaking. “Sobrina?”

“Go go go!” Alex hissed, pushing the boys. They sprinted towards the car, pulling away at a speed Luke didn’t think the clunker had left in her.

“That was – I mean – did you –,” Luke spluttered at his two companions.

“Julie shreds on the piano,” Reggie agreed. “I wonder why she said she didn’t play?”

“Probably because of her mom,” Alex pointed out as they got to the strip mall parking lot. Luke was distantly impressed in some part of his mind – the usually ten minute ride had been reduced to two. “I feel for her. It must have been tough.”

“I wonder what gave her music back?” Reggie said wonderingly as they got out the car. “And if she’d agree to play for us if we asked. That was legit. I have goosebumps.”

He held up his arm in indication, not seeming to mind when Alex and Luke didn’t take up his offer to feel them. Instead, he cheerfully said goodbye to Luke, trailing Alex to the coffeeshop. Luke smiled – Reggie would bounce between the two shops, probably, especially since he knew Tia had a soft spot for him. 

He unlocked the store, got himself ready for the day, and promptly ignored everything he was meant to do in favour of thinking over his Sunset Curve songs. Was it a soprano he needed? Maybe Julie could advise them on how to audition for a new voice. A pity she was going back to New York – she’d be an amazing addition to the band.

Maybe they could get her to hologram herself in.

He snorted at the thought. A hologram band. 

Getting his head back in shape, he went through his opening duties – wiping down the counters from dust, getting the lid of the baby grand open, and adjusting instruments to their best positions. He was in the middle of getting a cello to face the entrance when he heard the distinctive sound of Tia entering. 

“Mijo!”

“Hey Tia,” he greeted. “Let me just get this done, and then I’ll go over Fuego’s receipts from yesterday.”

“That can wait – come meet my niece!”

His head jerked. The musical niece, that he’d spent months hearing about. 

Luke propped the bow up, turned to face Tia, and met two very familiar brown eyes.

“Wait, Julie?”

“Luke?”

“You know each other?”

Oh, the irony.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed!
> 
> Songs mentioned:  
> My Shot from Hamilton  
> Helpless from Hamilton (my personal favorite)  
> Satisfied from Hamilton  
> Wake Up by Madison Reyes ft. three awkward himbo bois with no sense of boundaries
> 
> Yes, I should be doing my assignment, I'll go now.
> 
> If you have any requests for oneshots in the universe, be they pre or during fic, please let me know - I'd love to explore 'off screen' moments or alternative POVs. (Also I'm sorry if you already requested and I somehow missed it, I do not have a memory right now, please comment them specifically on this chapter or future ones so I can make a dedicated list).
> 
> If you want to see a kinda cool crochet project I'm making based on JatP, go check out my tumblr @angelofarts - I officially have progress photos, and if you search my user handle it should come up even if you don't have an account. Otherwise copy and paste: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/angelofarts  
> It should be the most recent post and then if you scroll back a bit, there are previous progress photos. 
> 
> Thanks for reading, stay safe, have a good whatever time of day it is, and remember not to watch people in garages while they perform private songs unless you have been explicitly invited to do so.


	19. “And it was the cutest tinfoil hat you’ve ever seen.”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke is oblivious, Tia has her fun, and brownies make an appearance!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm kinda meh on this one, but I really wanted to get something out for everyone today.
> 
> This chapter dedicated to the three people and one half eaten burrito who are still reading this 😂
> 
> No trigger warnings

“Sobrina?”

“In here, Tia.”

Victoria entered the garage from the back door, looking around the space fondly. Of all her family members, Julie knew her tia was the one who kept the memory of Rose alive the best, the one who was comfortable reminiscing about her sister. Tia seemed violently afraid of the thought that she could forget anything about Rose. 

Victoria entered and smiled at the sight of Julie behind the piano. “Hello, Sobrina. Was that piano I heard?”

Julie smiled as her aunt came around to stand behind her, her hands resting on Julie’s shoulders soothingly. She leaned back into her aunt’s embrace.

“Yes. I opened Mami’s letter. Look.”

Tia leaned forwards, trailing the lyrics with her index finger and mouthing the words. A smile broke over her face, but tears also filled her eyes.

“Oh, Rosa,” Victoria murmured. “I miss you.”

Julie turned to hug her aunt tightly. They stood together for a moment, united in love and grief.

“I miss her,” Victoria whispered into Julie’s hair. “You sound just like her, mija.”

“I’m going to keep her alive in my music, Tia. Promise.”

Victoria clutched Julie tighter for just a moment longer, before straightening and wiping away the tears under her eyes. “Do you want to stay here, sobrina? There’s food in the house if you get hungry.”

Julie smiled but shook her head. “I’d rather come with you, if you don’t mind. Trevor paid for jet ski lessons, and I don’t want to miss out.”

“Ah, you kids and your FOMO,” Victoria said indulgently, reaching for the cloth to cover the piano again. Julie almost snorted.

“Who taught you that word?”

“The boy from the shop,” Tia said, looking proud as she put an arm around Julie’s shoulders. “You’ll meet him this morning – we’ll have to go past the shop quickly to check everything before I can drop you off. You’ll like him though. Mind on music and nothing else.”

Julie smiled as they closed the doors together. Victoria’s employee sounded kind of like Luke and the band, although she’d noticed recently that Alex and Nick both seemed a little less focused on music and a little more on her friends. 

As they got into the car, her phone vibrated in her pocket. She dug it out as Victoria pulled out.

_Disappointment @ NYPA Brats: Jules!!!!!_

_Disappointment @ NYPA Brats: Julie!!!!_

_Disappointment @ NYPA Brats: Julie Molina 911 pick up your phone right now!!!_

_Speedbump @ NYPA Brats: is this a 911 scenario?_

_Demon @ NYPA Brats: It definitely is not but go off I guess_

_Disappointment @ NYPA Brats: Julie_

_Disappointment @ NYPA Brats: Julie_

_Disappointment @ NYPA Brats: Julie_

_Disappointment @ NYPA Brats: Julie_

_Disappointment @ NYPA Brats: Julie_

_Disappointment @ NYPA Brats: Julie_

_Disappointment @ NYPA Brats: Julie_

_Disappointment @ NYPA Brats: Julie_

_Disappointment @ NYPA Brats: Julie_

_Disappointment @ NYPA Brats: Julie_

_Disappointment @ NYPA Brats: Julie_

_Disappointment @ NYPA Brats: Julie_

_Disappointment @ NYPA Brats: Julie_

_see 37 more messages…_

Julie snorted as she scrolled down. 

_Underachiever @ NYPA Brats: I’m here, I’m here, what happened?_

_Disappointment @ NYPA Brats: CARRIE KISSED NICK WHEN HE CAME DOWN THE STAIRS THIS MORNING_

_Underachiever @ NYPA Brats: WAIT WHAT_

_Underachiever @ NYPA Brats: WHEN DID THAT PROGRESS_

_Underachiever @ NYPA Brats: CAROLINA WILSON (wait why don’t we know your middle name) SPILL THE TEA_

_Demon @ NYPA Brats: first of all, you’ll never get my middle name. that’s cursed information_

_Demon @ NYPA Brats: second of all, I was going to tell you guys last night but we had more important things going on_

_Underachiever @ NYPA Brats: sorry Carrie_

_Demon @ NYPA Brats: Jules, I will always put your mental health first. We’re sisters, remember_

_Speedbump @ NYPA Brats: objection_

_Demon @ NYPA Brats: sisters and the stray pet we picked up off the side of the road_

_Speedbump @ NYPA Brats: … acceptable_

_Demon @ NYPA Brats: there’s time to talk about the light stuff later on, Jules. Don’t apologize for needing our support. We’re a safe space here, remember? We love each other_

_Disappointment @ NYPA Brats: Fools (affectionate)_

_Speedbump @ NYPA Brats: drama queen (affectionate)_

_Underachiever @ NYPA Brats: I love you guys (affectionate). Now Carrie, SPILL THE TEA_

_Demon @ NYPA Brats: nope, you’ll have to wait for me to tell you at the beach. whoops gotta go bye_

_Disappointment @ NYPA Brats: I am sitting RIGHT NEXT TO YOU YOU CANNOT ESCAPE ME_

“We’re here,” Victoria said as the car drew to a stop. “Come on. If you’re nice to me, I’ll get you hot chocolate from that coffeeshop we were at yesterday.”

“Oh, I think my friend Alex might work there,” Julie told her as they made their way to the back entrance. “You’d like him.”

“The tall one who drums?” Victoria said, a fond smile on her face. “Yes, he’s sweet, I like him. A little high strung though.”

“It’s anxiety,” Julie told her mildly, opening the door. “High strung is kind of his thing. Drums help.”

Julie could see Tia take in the information, and she smiled. This would probably be cause for an invitation to be extended to Alex to use the drums whenever he wanted during his breaks, which meant she would probably have to look into the cost of soundproofing the shop for her aunt. She made a mental note to do it after jet skis.

Victoria bustled ahead of her as Julie set her backpack in her aunt’s office. “Mijo!”

“Hey, Tia,” a male voice said, sounding fond. Julie smiled – it was very likely that Victoria had flat out ignored her employee until he called her Tia. It had happened several times before. “Let me just get this done, and then I’ll go over Fuego’s receipts from yesterday.”

“That can wait – come meet my niece!”

Julie figured that was her cue, so she stepped into the main room. Sea green eyes under a familiar orange hat peered at her in confusion.

“Wait, Julie?”

“Luke?”

“You know each other?”

Luke stood properly, his face confused. “When did you get here? And Tia, where’s your niece?”

Julie raised an eyebrow along with her arm. “Yeah, hi, I am the niece?”

Luke’s jaw almost dropped. “The musical niece who moved to New York on a scholarship who has the most incredible voice in the world?”

Julie whirled to face her aunt. “Tia!”

Victoria shrugged unapologetically. “I’m right and I should say it. But I want to know how you two know each other.”

“Julie’s staying with Bobby’s sister,” Luke told her, still looking confused. “I… why didn’t you tell me your aunt owns the shop?”

“I didn’t realize you were her employee!”

He raised an eyebrow. “Julie, you were here when Carrie bought strings.” 

She sighed, sitting on the piano bench. “This is going to sound dumb but… I’ve never actually been here before this week. So I didn’t realize when we were here on Sunday, and then yesterday it didn’t register.”

“You two are both clueless and adorable,” Tia announced from where she was checking the cash register. “I feel like I’m watching a telenovela.”

“Tia!” the two of them hissed together. Julie felt her face heat up and prayed the lighting in the store was dim enough that Luke wouldn’t notice – all she needed was for Tia to put together the pieces about the cute boy she’d gushed about the day before and Tia’s employee. Although, to be fair, the way Victoria was looking at them meant Julie was pretty sure her aunt already knew exactly what was going on and was just enjoying the two of them digging themselves into more verbal holes they had no chance of getting out of.

“Tia, don’t you have to double check slips from yesterday?” Luke asked, sounding somewhat desperate. A quick glance told Julie he’d flushed a deep red, from the tip of his ears down his neck to his arms and oh gosh, okay, the mall’s air conditioning was also broken. 

Luke met her eyes and both their gazes immediately darted away from one another. NOPE NOT TODAY THANK YOU GOODBYE.

“Oh, I’m in no rush,” Tia said, her head propped up by her hand as she leaned forwards with a grin. “I’d love to hear all about how you two know one another.”

“If you aren’t in a rush, can we go then please?” Julie piped up. “I really don’t want to be late for the lesson.”

“You said you weren’t very excited for it,” Luke said, furrowing his eyebrows.

She frowned at him. “Luke, stop trying to help.”

Apparently Tia took pity on them. “Luke, am I right in thinking disaster children one and two are in the coffeeshop?”

Luke nodded. “Alex and I have matching shifts for the rest of the week.”

“Perfect. Be a good boy and take Julie to her lesson for me? And take your boys with you.”

“But Alex’s boss…”

A slightly evil grin came over Tia’s face. “Oh, don’t you worry about him. I will sort that out.”

Luke shrugged and stood, grabbing what Julie assumed was his phone and wallet from behind the counter before shyly smiling at her, indicating she should go through the door first.

“Oh and Luke?”

He turned back. “Yeah Tia?”

“You’re on paid leave the rest of the week. Alex too.”

Sometimes, Julie reflected as they crossed to the coffeeshop, her Tia was absolutely terrifying.

**********************************************************************************

“I don’t want to know,” Alex announced, “how you managed to do this.”

He and Reggie were waiting for Julie and Luke when they got to the shop – apparently, Tia worked fast. “Somehow, my shift manager, who I’m pretty sure actually hates me and is plotting to kill me with a poisoned venti latte one day, just offered me paid time off for the rest of Spring Break.”

“Tia strikes again,” Luke told him as they started towards the car.

“Why a venti latte?” Julie asked, her arm hooking through Reggie’s as they walked. “Couldn’t you just, like, avoid lattes then?”

Alex clapped a dramatic hand to his chest. “Are you denying me my life blood, Miss Molina?”

Julie laughed and Luke regretted every moment before then that he’d wasted – how had he not heard the power in it before now?

“Oh, hey, guys,” Luke said, aiming for casual as they reached the car. “You know Tia’s amazing musical niece that she keeps going on about? You’ll never guess who it is.”

“It’s Julie,” Reggie said, like it was obvious. Three people spun to face him.

“Excuse me?”

“Dude, how did you know that?”

“Reg, what the heck?”

Reggie looked at them all pityingly. “Guys, how did you not see it? Tia and Julie look exactly the same. And that was her house we dropped Julie off at this morning.”

“How do you know where my aunt lives?” 

Luke couldn’t blame Julie for her question – he was confused as well.

“Well, this one time Bobby and I were at the mall and Nick had to go because he needed to help his aunt Sharpay – she’s amazing, by the way, she taught me to put on eyeliner – and we were left without a lift, so Tia took us home, and I recognized her car when we dropped you off,” Reggie rambled as he got into the backseat. 

“That’s… okay,” Alex muttered, taking shotgun again. 

Luke handed the aux cord to Julie, seated behind him. “Sorry, Lex. You had music privileges on the way here, so it’s Julie’s turn.”

“I could put on some country?” Reggie offered helpfully.

“No!”

Julie shot Luke a disappointed look. “Come on, Reggie, you can help me pick something.”

Luke pulled out of the lot as Julie started scrolling through Spotify. A familiar intro started, and Luke shot Julie a sour look.

“Right now, he’s probably slow dancing with a bleach blond tramp and she’s probably getting frisky,” Reggie began, seeming far too happy for the sombre tone of the song. Alex turned to high five Julie as Carrie Underwood listed all the things her ex was doing.

“Hey,” Julie said, leaning forwards as the song went on to list everything she was planning to do to the car. “I’m, um, kind of rusty, but do you guys mind if I sing to the next song?”

Was saying ‘yes, please, you are a wrecking ball of talent and also please marry me right now’ coming on too strong?

Luke settled for a slightly strangled, “Yeah, sure, this car is a safe singing space.”

“What song do you want?” Alex asked, sounding gentle.

Wait, Alex. Alex knew Julie before she moved to New York. 

Alex knew Julie could sing like that.

Luke was interrupted in his plans to glue feathers to the back of Alex’s head when Julie answered. “A ballad, maybe? Something small to start with.”

Luke was prevented on commenting that her singing that morning hadn’t been small by a pointed look from Alex. “Sure thing, Julie-bean. Let me see what I can find.”

They sat through the rest of Reggie’s choice (for a man who hadn’t dated since Nick, Reggie got surprisingly into the mood, pointing accusing fingers at Alex whenever the song mentioned someone) before Alex turned back to Julie.

“Always Been You by Shawn Mendes?”

Julie nodded, looking nervous. “Just… don’t judge me, okay?”

They all agreed not to, but when the first note poured from Julie’s throat, he almost swerved right off the small road he was driving down to get them to Alex’s house. 

“Rusty?!” he squeaked when she took a breath. “Jeez, Jules, if that’s rusty I’d like to hear you at capacity.”

She blushed and bit her lip as they got to the Mercer house and Alex ran in to grab swimming trunks for himself (Bobby claimed he had trunks for Luke and Reggie, but Luke wasn’t entirely convinced Bobby wouldn’t provide them with bikini bottoms stolen from Carrie, so he wasn’t taking that chance). “I haven’t sung in a while, so…”

“You have a set of pipes on you,” Reggie said admiringly. “Oh, hey, Alex is back.”

Alex was indeed back, a sour look on his face. 

“What’s wrong?” Luke asked as he pulled away and made his way to Reggie’s neighbourhood. 

“My parents want a family meeting tonight,” he grumbled. “They say I have to be home for it, but I can go to the Wilson’s afterwards.”

That was unusual – the Mercer’s didn’t usually care where Alex stayed during the break, and he usually spent most weekends either at the Wilson’s or the Danforth-Evans’s. 

“I’m sure it’s okay,” Luke soothed as they pulled up to Reggie’s house. Reggie ran in the fastest – probably to avoid his parents yelling again – as Julie rubbed Alex’s shoulder. “If they were really mad, they’d have talked to you now, wouldn’t they?”

Alex shrugged as Reggie emerged, his trunks along with sunscreen clutched in his hands.

Luke debated whether he could get away with not going to his house, but knowing Carrie she would donate bikini bottoms in revenge for his technicalities violation the night before. With a sigh, he navigated to his house.

“Want us to come with you?” Alex asked. Luke shook his head. 

“Should be in and out.”

Julie inhaled deeply, a look of deep concentration on her face. “Do… do I smell brownies? Luke, if I smell brownies I’m coming in there with you.”

“Oh, grab us some?” Reggie asked. Before Luke could say anything, Julie had hopped out of the car and was waiting for him.

“Just tell her no,” Alex said, seeing the conflict across Luke’s face.

Luke bit his lip. “I… don’t really want to.”

Reggie coughed something that sounded distinctly like “simp”, which Luke tried to ignore as he got out the car. 

“Mom? Dad?”

“In here!”

Emily was in the kitchen, putting brownies onto a cooling rack. She smiled at the two of them as they entered.

“Mom, this is Julie Molina. Julie, this is my mom.”

The two women smiled at one another, but Emily’s thick oven mitts prevented a handshake.

Luke turned to his mom. “Tia gave me the morning off, so I thought I’d go to the beach with Julie and the guys. Is that okay?”

“Of course. Julie, would you like a brownie?”

Luke frowned. “Why don’t I get offered brownies?”

“Because you’re meant to be getting your swimming trunks.”

In the time it took Luke to get his trunks, find towels for him and Alex and Reggie, and dig out the extra strong sunblock, Emily had packaged a Tupperware of brownies and handed them over to Julie, and they were discussing something that sounded suspiciously like…

“And it was the cutest tinfoil hat you’ve ever seen,” Emily said, a gleam in her eye.

“Okay thanks Mom, we have to go!” Luke said, his voice hitting an impressively high note. “See you later!”

“Oh but I want to hear the rest of the story,” Julie teased, nevertheless allowing him to steer her towards the door. Luke could only be grateful that his dad was at the firm, sparing him the embarrassment of both parents telling his embarrassing childhood stories.

“No, you don’t,” he said firmly.

Although, Luke reflected as they got to the car, maybe… maybe he wanted her to hear them.

Maybe he wasn’t scared of Julie knowing his stories. 

Maybe, he thought as Alex fed him a brownie and they started to drive to where the others were waiting, maybe he could see Julie Molina becoming something permanent for him.

It was a strangely comforting thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! 
> 
> Songs mentioned:  
> Before He Cheats by Carrie Underwood  
> Wonder by Shawn Mendes
> 
> Sorry if it isn't great, it's been a weird day. 
> 
> If you have any alternative scenes you'd like to see as additional one shots, please let me know, I really enjoy writing them. If you want to see a kind of cool JatP crochet project I'm making, I'm at @angelofarts on Tumblr. 
> 
> Uuuh... my brain isn't working super well to remember how I usually end these. Stay safe, have a good day/night and please don't follow cute boys into ghost clubs no matter how sharp their jawlines.


	20. Yeah, okay Alex, I’ll be a set of biceps for now.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The jet skis, gushing, and everyone being flustered.
> 
> Ft. Nick being my favorite for an entire interaction.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No trigger warnings as far as I know.
> 
> This chapter dedicated to my local power station who decided that I can have just enough power today to post this.

Reggie ran his finger over Julie’s wrist when they got back to the car, seeming fascinated with her bracelets. “Are they all from something?”

Alex, who was feeding Luke a brownie, snorted. “Reg, give the girl some space.”

“No, don’t,” Julie objected when Reggie looked like a kicked puppy. “I don’t mind it, Reggie. I like cuddles. And yeah, they all mean something. This is my bracelet with Flynn, this one is my one with Carrie, that’s my one for Willie, and this one is meant to be all of us. If you look, they each have one too.”

Reggie noted the four bracelets – one purple and pink, one purple and blue, one purple and brown, and one with all four colors, with interest.

“Guys, we should have friendship bracelets!” he declared when he’d thought it over. 

Luke shrugged nonchalantly. “Sure, I’m up for it. Jules, could you teach us how to make them?”

Julie winced as she accepted a brownie from Alex. “I dunno, they take a while to master. I can send you guys some YouTube tutorials though?”

Reggie looked disappointed for a second before his eyes lit up. “They sell bracelets down by the beach! We can go pick some out after jet skis.”

The others agreed as they pulled into the lot. Julie grabbed her backpack before making her way to where Willie, Nick, Carrie, Flynn and Bobby were waiting, dressed in their swimwear.

“Hey,” Flynn said, searching her face. “Did… did you do it?”

With a grin, Julie nodded. “Played and sang the whole thing through.”

The group erupted in shrieks and jumping, and Julie was picked up by Nick and Willie, proclaiming her their hero. She laughed, holding desperately to their hair as Bobby, in an uncharacteristic display of affection, twirled his sister around before giving Flynn a hug. They started a chant of, “Molina! Molina! Molina!”, ignoring the other people on the beach giving them confused looks. 

Alex laughed and joined in, letting Willie grab his free hand as they jumped. Eventually Julie began to slip out of Nick’s grasp, and insisted they let her down.

“Jules!” Flynn squealed, launching herself at Julie. “I am so ridiculously proud of you!”

That, apparently, was the signal for a group hug. Despite their confusion, Julie saw Luke and Reggie shrug and join in, until she was in the center of a pile up.

“Whoa, what’s going on here?”

Trevor looked at his progeny and their friends in amusement. 

“Julie sang!” Bobby told his dad, still uncharacteristically excited. Trevor’s mouth dropped open. 

“Really?”

Julie grinned and nodded. With a laugh, Trevor pulled her into a massive hug, and Julie squeezed her eyes shut. Trevor’s hugs, despite the time she’d spent in New York, were as familiar to her as singing rock in her childhood, and if she couldn’t get a hug from one of her parents after reaching this milestone, this was the next best thing.

As their hug broke and the others moved to set their things in the basket Trevor had brought with him, he gave her a paternal look.

“Are you up for a little performance?” he asked gently. “There’s really no pressure, but… this old man could do with some magic again.”

She grinned, unable to let go of her elation. “Uncle Trevor, I would be honored.”

His smile could have blinded her. “This afternoon though, because your instructor is here.” He looked at Alex, Luke and Reggie, seeming confused. “I didn’t know the boys would be here, otherwise I would’ve got more jet skis. You girls may have to double up.”

Okay, this time the heat made sense. It was the beach and she was in a jump suit, and it was a sunny day in LA. It absolutely had nothing to do with the thought of putting her arms around Luke while he didn’t have a shirt on.

Nothing.

Nada.

… Maybe she should ask if Reggie could double up with her. Or Alex.

She toed off her shoes and socks and discarded her jumpsuit on the blanket Trevor had spread out, leaving her in her Triple Threat shirt and silver swim shorts. When she looked over at Flynn and Carrie, she had to smile – they both had their matching shirts on, Carrie over a pink bikini and Flynn over an olive green camo print one piece. 

“Ready for this?” Willie asked, dropping his shirt next to her jumpsuit and putting his hair into a low ponytail at the nape of his neck. 

Julie snorted. “Sunblock first, Speedbump. I refuse to fly back to New York listening to you complain the whole time because you’re sunburnt.”

“That’s a mood,” a voice said from behind her. She turned to point an accusing finger at Bobby, who had set his clothes carefully apart – according to Carrie, the boys were notorious clothes stealers.

“You too, Bobby. I distinctly remember the last time we let you skip out on sunblock, you came away boiled lobster red.”

“Please tell me there are photos.”

Willie’s face was an exercise in Julie keeping herself restrained as his emotions played across his features. First, shock. Then, amusement. And finally, something so soft and intimate that she kind of felt like she was watching something she shouldn’t be. 

“Looking good, Hotdog,” Willie said to Alex, who was in green trunks and rubbing SPF 50 onto his chest. Alex, who’d been focused on his hands, looked up, and his face cycled through the same emotions.

“Not sure I like that nickname,” he replied after a second, apparently forgetting that he had sunblock to continue spreading on himself. “It’s how I almost died. And what’s the story behind Speedbump?”

“I already told you that story.”

A quick grin. “I think I need to hear it from Julie. Not sure you gave me the accurate version.”

“Julie, stop watching them flirt and give me the sunblock,” Bobby complained, taking the bottle from her. Carrie, in the midst of helping a spluttering, red faced Nick get sunblock on his back, snorted. 

“Okay, okay, here,” she grumbled, moving to Flynn. “Flynnie, do my neck?”

“Where are the others?” Nick asked once he was helping Carrie hold her hair above her neck to get sunscreen on it. 

Flynn shrugged from where she was putting on the back of Julie’s neck, before moving to the top of her ears. “They went to change, I think.”

“Reggie was arguing about if Luke had his trunks,” Alex told them, letting Willie get the top of his shoulders with a remarkably steady voice. “They’ll be here soon.”

“Gossiping about us?” Luke’s familiar voice asked. Julie turned, then wished she hadn’t.

Luke… Luke’s shirt that morning hadn’t exactly left much to the imagination. She’d been somewhat surprised that Tia had allowed Luke to work when so much of his chest was basically on display. (Then again, maybe it helped sales – Tia was pretty shrewd about the shop.) But him without a shirt on…

“Flynn,” she whispered when the boys started to argue about who was helping who put on sunblock, until Alex and Bobby told them to shush so they could do it. “Let me jet ski with Reggie?”

Flynn, whose eyes hadn’t left Reggie’s figure since he’d arrived, scoffed. “Girl, you can get him over my dead body. Mama finally found eye candy.”

Julie frowned. “Reggie is more than eye candy, Flynn.”

“I know, but if I admit that I actually really like him, it ruins my tough girl persona.”

A scoff. “In order to ruin it, you’d have to have one first.”

Hands shot out of nowhere, poking Julie in her side.

Julie shrieked and jumped. “Nick, don’t do that!”

Nick and Carrie laughed from where they'd snuck up on her and Flynn. Julie couldn’t help but notice that they were holding hands again, and she and Flynn exchanged significant looks.

“So how did that happen?” Flynn asked, waving Willie over.

Carrie, surprisingly, blushed. Nick raised her hand to his mouth and gently kissed the back of her hand.

“I mean, I fell for Carrie when I was like twelve,” he said casually. “But last night I guess she finally noticed me back.”

“I noticed you before then,” Carrie told him in a soft voice. “I just… had courage last night. Nothing like a police raid, right?”

Trevor, who’d been passing, gave his daughter a concerned look. “Care?”

“Talking about a video game Carlos has back in New York,” Carrie told him, not missing a beat. He nodded and moved to greet the woman who Julie thought would be teaching them.

Alex came over and took Willie’s hand. “Ready for this?”

“As long as you come with, Hotdog,” Willie said with a wink. While Alex flushed an impressive red, he also smiled softly.

“Anyone else feeling violently alone?” Reggie asked as he and Luke approached, dressed in red and blue trunks respectively. “Trevor said we’re doubling up because of us interlopers. Care to pick partners?”

Alex held up his and Willie’s entwined hands, and Nick did the same with Carrie.

“If any of you come near me, I will not be held responsible for my actions,” Bobby said darkly. “Reggie, come here, you didn’t put block on your ears.”

“I want Reggie,” Flynn announced, following him to where Bobby was waiting. When Reggie turned red and spluttered, Flynn shot him a grin. “To be my partner, calm down bassist.”

“Right. Partner. That’s definitely what I thought you meant. Uh huh uh huh uh huh.”

Julie stuck her tongue out at Flynn before turning to Luke. “Mind dealing with me?”

He gave her a soft smile. “Of course not. You and me? We’ll be the best at this, no competition.”

“Jules,” Carrie said, taking off her shirt and dropping it to the side. “You need to get sunscreen on your shoulders, otherwise you’ll burn.”

Julie groaned but did as she was told, stripping off her shirt and letting it fall to the ground. Flynn followed suit, before gathering their shirts and setting them in a pile on the blankets.

“Dude, you okay?” Bobby asked Reggie, who was coughing, his eyes on Flynn. Julie grinned.

“I’m good,” three voices replied. To her surprise, Luke had turned red as well, and Nick looked like he would tug on his collar to cool down, except he didn’t have a shirt on, his eyes glued to his… girlfriend? Were they dating? Julie had to get Carrie to tell them the full story.

“You okay?” Julie asked Luke. “Swallow wrong?”

He cleared his throat. “Yep, that’s what happened.”

Before she could question it, Trevor was waving them over and Bobby was handing the bottle of sunblock to his sister so she could put on Julie and Flynn while Willie got her back done and Nick looked distinctly uncomfortable.

“I’m nervous,” Julie whispered to Luke. He looked down at her and gave her a soft smile.

“We’ll be fine, Jules. You and me together? We got this.”

**********************************************************************************

“I’m nervous,” Luke teased Julie as she swung herself onto the jet ski. She’d followed the instructors directions to a T, nodding and absorbing while he was too distracted by the one curl that fell against the outside shell of her ear to hear more than, “and then put your arms around your partner.” He pretty much expected her to be a boss at this – so far she’d slayed everything else she’d done the whole time he was around her, why not this too.

“Oh, come on Biceps,” she teased. “Get on, or I’m leaving you behind.”

“Biceps, huh?”

She flushed a dark red, a predictably beautiful color on her. Luke felt a smile spread across his face as he climbed on behind her, taking the chance to flex slightly as he braced his arms on the seat in front of her. 

_Yeah, okay Alex, I’ll be a set of biceps for now._

“Passengers, hold onto your driver,” the instructor warned. Carrie and Alex happily tightened their arms around Nick and Willie respectively, while Reggie seemed flustered when Flynn lightly set her hands on his bare shoulders. Luke wasn’t sure where to put his hands – Julie was far too small for her shoulders to give him any leverage, but he wasn’t all that keen on flying backwards the second she hit the throttle.

“And… start!”

Luke desperately clutched at Julie’s waist as their jet ski went shuddering forwards. He definitely did not shriek like a little girl when Julie turned, and he definitely did not have his eyes shut and his face hidden in her shoulder.

“Luke, look!” he heard her yell, a laugh in her voice. He took a second to peek out and…

Yeah, this was worth it.

The water stretched as far as the eye could see, and as Julie turned he could see their friends as they rode. Bobby was doing impressive tricks – he clearly had access to these whenever he wanted them – and moving in wide circles. Carrie was yelling encouragement at Nick as he tried to chase Reggie and Flynn, who were laughing as they rode away from them, and Alex and Willie were taking things as slow as you could on a jet ski, laughing as they did. While he watched, Willie leaned into a turn, and Alex clutched him closer, tucking his chin over Willie’s shoulder and grinning when their cheeks were pressed against each other.

“They’re cute!” Julie yelled back to him. “Let’s go mess it up!”

Luke laughed and nodded, urging her forwards. When she got to the boys, she moved in a big curve, generating a wave to go over them. Alex emerged, spluttering and with his wet hair plastered to his face, and Willie grinned. 

“Oh, it is on, Molina!”

Julie shrieked and turned their jet ski as Alex whooped and he and Willie gave chase. Bobby saw what was happening and decided to get in on it, while Flynn and Reggie tried to get the others to leave them alone. They were spread over a wide area, but it definitely reminded Luke of afternoons when he and the boys would mess around in the Wilson’s pool playing chicken and eating barbeque. 

When Alex went flying into the water, Luke decided to follow suit, slipping into the water and paddling under the surface to reach him. Emerging, Luke shook his hair at his friend, who was breathless with laughter.

“This is fun!”

He was about to agree when he spotted Julie.

She was cool and confident, handling the jet ski like a pro as she raced away from Willie, yelling at him about their lost “dead weight” with a grin thrown in their direction. She was completely comfortable up there, despite her nervous comment.

“You are so gone,” Alex teased, seeing his face.

Luke smiled softly. “Not yet. But… maybe soon.”

“What, does she have to perform with you first?”

Luke scoffed. “I have more than one personality trait. I keep telling you guys that.”

“And we keep ignoring you because no you don’t,” Alex said skeptically. “Come on, lets get them to pick us up.”

They melodramatically “drowned” in their spot until Willie and Julie felt bad for them, calling a temporary truce to haul them back onto their skis. That seemed to be time for everyone to switch positions – Luke took the front and Julie scooted behind him, her breath against his shoulder distracting in all the best ways.

“Um, so what do I do?”

Julie laughed and reached over, pointing out the sequence he had to use to get the jet ski going. His take off was much rougher than hers, and they almost both went flying, but he got it under control and they started to speed up, gaining on Flynn who seemed to have an iron throttle, while Carrie looked far too used to handling their craft and Nick had a look on his face that said he was just falling even more in love with her, while Bobby was getting bored of them and had started to do circles around Alex and Willie, who were taking it with remarkable grace.

“They look happy!” Julie yelled in his ear, her hands moving from his shoulder to link around his waist. His heartbeat instantly sped up as he felt her fingers trace his skin lightly, before her hands clasped one another, bringing her even closer to him. His heart was beating in his throat, his brain fuzzy.

“Yeah!” he yelled back a beat too late. She didn’t reply, only tucking her head against his back.

When they went in at the end of the lesson, the instructor praised Julie not only for her skill in handling, but also in retrieving Luke when he dived. 

“If you need part time work during the summer, you should apply to the life guard program.”

Luke expected Julie to explain her New York residence during the school year, but instead she thanked the instructor before making her way to the blanket where their things were stacked.

“So, shopping then lunch?” Reggie asked, looping his arm around Luke’s neck. Luke groaned as Reggie’s wet hair flopped into his face.

“I’m cool with that,” Alex said, hand still linked with Willie’s. Luke smiled at how comfortable the two of them seemed – amazing what having to press up against each other will do for your comfort. Thank you, Trevor, co-captain of the ship Willex.

Bobby frowned. “I have English homework to finish, and you guys are all giving off big couple vibes. I’ll meet you at the house for lunch. You guys want to have barbeque?”

While Reggie said yes and Nick was putting in requests for food, Luke was too busy flushing at the sight of Julie slipping her Triple Threat shirt back on. Her still wet skin rendered the shirt basically useless, and it clearly showed her purple tankini straight through. She didn’t seem bothered as she packed her jumpsuit and shoes into her backpack and walked to join them, saying goodbye to Bobby.

“I was promised friendship bracelets?” she asked Reggie, hooking her arm through his once he had his white vest on. Reggie’s face brightened.

“We should all get matching ones,” Carrie declared, taking Nick’s hand as though it was nothing. Nick, on the other hand, looked at their linked fingers as though he held something infinitely precious in his hands. Carrie’s other arm hooked into Flynn’s at the elbow. 

“Oh, let’s do the Wizard of Oz walk there!” Alex said as Reggie, blushing heavily, took Flynn’s offered hand. Flynn smiled softly, a smile at odds with the girl Luke distinctly remembered threatening his life the night before. 

Alex, holding Willie’s hand, hooked his elbow through Luke’s, leaving Luke and Julie the missing link. Before he could overthink it, he reached out and slipped his fingers between hers as they started the walk.

It was just hands. 

Why did it feel like the most important thing in the universe?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Comments and kudos always appreciated, and feel free to jump into our ongoing discussion about best men speeches - funnier than you'd think it is.
> 
> Any alternative POV's for any of the scenes in fic, any "lost scenes" or anything else you can think of pre or during fic, please let me know (soon we'll be able to add post fic to that too!)
> 
> I am DEFINITELY not throwing you all fluff in a preemptive apology of a few chapters to come... nope, completely innocent right here...
> 
> If anyone wants a dedicated thread, please let me know, I love the tangents and interactions I'm getting on them and its leading to wonderful ideas for future fics and chapter ideas.
> 
> Also feel free to throw song suggestions at me for anyone in the fic if you have any, I'd love to incorporate more music in than the songs Alex, Reggie and Julie play in the car to annoy Luke.
> 
> Stay safe, have a good day/night, and please put sunscreen on your ears if you go out in harsh sun because it's one of the worst places to burn (not me speaking from experience...)


	21. “Bobby is the only one of us surviving the apocalypse, confirmed.”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Friendship bracelets, chicken, and references galore!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No triggers as far as I can tell, but as always, please let me know if I've missed anything.
> 
> Fake internet points for references. Extra fake internet points for references from earlier chapters because I think I'm funny. Bonus extra fake internet points if you identify the line that I drew from my much referenced cursed group chat.
> 
> Please suspend disbelief at how many bracelets of the same colors the boys managed to find - Reggie wants a connection with all his friends and I was powerless to stop him.
> 
> This chapter dedicated to both the people with the incredibly funny usernames who gave me kudos - you MADE MY DAY and also possibly had my family questioning my sanity when I burst out laughing halfway through my assignment - and to the girls you can kind of see in the background of the gym in episode 7 dancing together. I feel for you, ladies - I too never had a male partner when we did dancing. Curse my tall genetics.

Luke had callouses on his left hand. 

Luke had callouses on his left hand and Julie was not handling this well.

Objectively, she knew Luke was a guitarist. She’d seen him perform, and he worked in her aunt’s shop. Objectively, she knew guitarists had callouses – her mom had had them, called them her musical scars. Carrie and Bobby both had them. Julie herself had once upon a time had them, before she stopped playing music of any kind for a year – her main instrument remained the piano, but she knew enough guitar to get by when she wrote a song that required it.

But Luke’s callouses felt thick and rough against her fingers and Julie couldn’t stop analyzing it as the group walked to where the impromptu market was set up, rows of jewelry laid out on the colorful, cheap fabric the vendors used. 

Carrie steered the group towards one in particular, rows of neatly knotted bracelets laid out with some decorated with silver and gold charms, and Julie still could not stop thinking about the warm hand slipped into hers.

When Reggie withdrew his arm to crouch with Flynn as they considered colors, Carrie chiming in with her opinion, Julie couldn’t stop thinking about it.

“Hey,” Willie said softly, touching her arm. “You okay?”

She nodded, gently pulling her hand free from Luke to bend and look at bracelets. Willie dropped to his haunches next to her, giving her a pointed look – they would be having words about Julie’s preoccupation.

She didn’t know how to put it into words her friends would understand. This… this was her first crush since her mom passed away. Julie didn’t know how to tell Willie her brain was stuck on everything she wouldn’t be able to tell Rose – how Luke scrunched his nose when he thought, how he twirled pens through his grip, how he kept guitar picks in his mouth while he was writing, how he ate the most disgusting possible combination of food without being sick. 

Rose would have liked him though. She had a soft spot for guitarists, and Julie could imagine how quickly Rose would have wanted to take in all the other boys. Alex had been introduced to drums through Rose. Rose would have liked him and Willie together. And Carrie and Nick… Rose had seen that coming too. 

Julie’s eye caught on a bracelet set towards the back of the group she and Willie had been considering. It was knotted like most of the bracelets on her wrists, a mix of purple and blue, but most importantly, it had a small gold charm.

She picked it up and smiled sadly.

“A dahlia.”

Alex, who’d been standing just behind them, heard her. He moved to put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

“It’s okay, Julie-bean. We’re here.”

She gave him a smile. “Thanks, Lexie. I’m okay.”

Luke crouched next to her, hesitantly touching her arm. “Are dahlias important?”

“Kind of? They’re my mom’s favorite flower.” A beat. “They… were her favorite flower.”

Luke looked through the bracelets quickly, finding a matching one with a silver charm, before pulling out his wallet.

“These two, please,” he told the woman manning the stall. She accepted his money even as Julie protested.

“Luke, I have money, I can get my own bracelet.”

Luke smiled. “It’s a gift, Jules, ever heard of one? Here, help me put on my one?”

Julie bit back her smile as Luke offered her the wrist that already had three bracelets on it – one white, one black, and one black and yellow. The blue and purple bracelet nestled between the black ones comfortably, the charm glinting when he sun hit it.

“Here, I’ll help you do yours,” he offered, taking the bracelet from her hand and looking between her wrists.

She held out her left arm. “Left for people, right for experiences.”

He slid the bracelet on with a smile, settling it at the top of the stack and gently tightening it. She smiled up at his look of concentration as he fiddled with the strings. He looked on the verge of sticking his tongue out the corner of his mouth as he tried to get it just right so it wouldn’t cut off circulation.

“Hey, Julie!” Reggie called, breaking the small spell of intimacy between Julie and Luke. “Come here and pick a bracelet with me, I want one with everyone!”

Julie stepped back, flustered. “Coming Reggie!” She gave Luke a hesitant smile before going to where Reggie and Flynn had been considering bracelets, the others trailing after a moment.

Reggie had a massive pile of bracelets he was sorting through, the vendor looking at him fondly as he deliberated. Julie could understand – the way Reggie compared two bracelets, carefully considering both pattern and colors, you could see how much care he was putting into choosing right. 

“So I got this one for me, Luke and Alex,” he told her, showing her a bracelet with light pink, navy and blood red in a chevron pattern. “And then this one for Flynn.” That one had chevrons and diamonds in red, green and black. She noticed Flynn pass Alex and Luke their matching bracelets, hers already on her wrist, as Reggie went through and paid for the new bracelets as he decided. 

“But I can’t decide for you,” Reggie continued. “And then I want one for the band, and one for us all, and that’s a lot of pressure, you know?”

Julie sat next to him, considering options as she heard Nick and Carrie get matching white and pink bracelets, and Willie and Alex debate which colours they wanted. 

“I like purple,” she told Reggie mildly. “What’s your favorite color?”

“I can’t choose just one,” he said in disgust. “But knowing you like purple helps.”

They eventually went with a silver, purple and white one with stripes, and for the band Reggie went with the colors of their logo, buying an extra one for Bobby. Finally, they had to decide on one for the whole group.

“Oh, I know!” Nick said, his arm around Carrie as he spoke. “Reg, why don’t we all get different colors, but the same charm? Sort of like how we’re all different, but we come together?”

Reggie snapped his fingers and pointed at Nick. “I love it. What charm?”

“A microphone?” Alex offered, his hand now in Willie’s to show their matching bracelets – light pink and sea blue. 

They dug out every bracelet they could find with the microphones, paying the woman the last of their small change before distributing. Julie ended up with a magenta and grey with diamond patterns, which fit right in with her other ones.

“Hey, snap,” Flynn said happily – she’d got grey and white. 

“Me too,” Luke said, coming to help Julie stand. His was magenta and black.

“Want to get lunch?” Alex asked as they began to walk back towards the Wilson house. “Bobby said he’d ask Trevor to get lunch started.”

“Oh, I love barbeque,” Nick said happily. “Hotdogs from the Wilsons are the best.”

Reggie pointed an accusing finger at Nick. “You’re mean. Julie, join the band so we can throw out Nick for bringing up hotdogs. The band refuses to eat them now so I can’t have.”

Julie laughed as she hooked arms with Flynn. “You wouldn’t want me, Reggie. I can’t play guitar very well.”

Reggie waved the hand that wasn’t in Flynn’s dismissively. “You’ll open your mouth and sing, and no one will take a second look at the rest of us.”

“I feel like you’re forgetting that Julie lives in New York,” Alex said drily.

“Details to be worked out later. Also, more than 24 hours ago, therefore -,”

“- it doesn’t exist and they’re here forever,” Nick, Alex and Luke intoned together, laughing. Flynn looked around, raising an eyebrow.

“What kind of white boy magic is this?”

“The 24 hour argument is one we are very familiar with,” Luke explained as everyone released hands to climb the staircase to the house. 

As Flynn got more details on the 24 hour argument, Julie debated with herself. She’d already had one confusing Mom related moment today. Did she want to mention UCLA when she didn’t know for sure, and possibly hurt herself and the boys in the process?

Looking at Reggie’s happy face as he smelled the barbeque, and Alex’s soft face when he mentioned Trevor’s secret sauce to Willie, and Luke’s face as he asked if Carrie and Nick would take him and Julie in chicken before lunch, nudging Julie conspiratorially, she decided it could wait.

She wanted to enjoy today without any heavy conversations.

**********************************************************************************

Luke had found the only thing so far that Julie didn’t appear to be a natural at. After the third time they went down against Carrie and Nick, he was forced to admit defeat in chicken.

“Sorry,” she said sheepishly as he gave her a hand out of the pool so they could get their food. Trevor was in front of the barbeque, his robe open over his white shirt and Bermuda shorts, talking with Bobby as he turned food. 

“It’s okay, Jules,” Luke said, nudging her as they got plates. “Tell you what. I heard you tell Trevor you’d perform for him this afternoon, right? Play Bright with us?”  
“Sure,” she accepted. He blinked in surprise – he’d expected that to be a more drawn out process. 

“Really?”

“Do you not want me to?”

He rushed to reassure her as they took cold sides. “No, no, I do! I just wasn’t sure if you wanted to. I’ll get you the music after this, yeah?”

She smiled shyly at him. “Okay.”

They got their hot food after a short wait from Trevor and Bobby and went to sit with the others at the picnic tables behind the loungers. Carrie was trying to throw her chips into Nick’s mouth, and he wasn’t doing a spectacular job of catching them all but Flynn applauded his efforts. 

“Steak is the best,” Reggie said lovingly. “I could eat steak for every meal.”

“Really?” Alex asked from where he and Willie had been moving the second picnic table closer so the group could all sit together. “I’d have thought, like, pizza or something.”

“My money was on lasagna,” Flynn said, spearing a piece of watermelon and eating it contemplatively. 

Reggie snorted. “I’ve only had lasagna like, three times in my life. Nah, if I had to eat one thing for the rest of my life, it’d be sirloin steak.”

“Why did you say lasagna?” Julie asked Flynn. The girls had settled across from Luke and Reggie, and seemed to have an easy rhythm – as Luke watched, Julie tried to sneak a piece of Flynn’s watermelon, and Flynn deflected her without looking.

“Everyone likes pasta,” Flynn said mildly. 

“I’d have peanut butter and jelly sandwiches,” Julie declared, nodding. “Stick some of Mrs. Patterson’s brownies between them and I’m golden.”

“Oh, with you there,” Alex agreed. “I’m definitely going with Mrs. Patterson’s brownies.”

They went around the rest of the group – Luke chose pizza, Willie Mr. Molina’s omelets, Carrie burgers, which Nick agreed to without a second thought, and Flynn eventually decided on pasta, citing that as long as there were noodles she was happy.

“What about you, Bobby?” Julie asked when Bobby and Trevor joined them.

Bobby smirked. “Mashed potatoes.”

Trevor grinned. “That’s my boy.”

Flynn snorted. “Of everything you choose, why glorified baby food?”

“Because potatoes have every nutrient required for human survival except calcium, which you get in butter and milk. You guys might have fancy meals, but guess who survives?”

Luke started laughing. “Bobby is the only one of us surviving the apocalypse, confirmed.”

They laughed through the rest of lunch – Reggie learned that if Willie was provoked, there was a good chance of flying food – before Carrie said she wanted to get changed and pulled Julie and Flynn with her. That was a sign for the rest of them to start cleaning up, which gave Luke an opportunity to let the others know what was going to happen.

To his surprise, Willie gave him a clap on the back. “Thanks, man. I think this will be good for her.”

“Really?” Reggie asked.

Willie nodded. “Julie hasn’t played since her mom died. Maybe having you guys backing her up will help ease her into playing for an audience again.”

The girls returned as the boys finished cleaning up, all three in their previous outfits – Triple Threat shirts on them all, Julie in her jump suit, Flynn in an overall dress, and Carrie in cutoff denim shorts. Luke definitely didn’t almost walk directly into the pool when he saw the contrast of the white shirt against Julie’s deep brown skin. He just… forgot where the pool he’d swum in weekly since he was 12 ended. 

“Stop,” Bobby grumbled, pulling him back. “You’re embarrassing yourself.”

Luke flushed. “Sorry. Want to head in? My hands are dry now.”

Bobby nodded, gesturing for the others to go in. Reggie balanced the stack of plates with careful concentration, whooping when he set them down on the counter without dropping them.

“Go Reg!” Julie cheered, grinning with him. “Okay, boys, let’s see what a show we can put on for our audience.”

“More like captive hostages,” Carrie teased, walking with her arm around her dad. “You sure you don’t want us to do the dishes, Dad?”

He waved a dismissive hand. “They can wait. You don’t keep a Molina performer waiting – I learned that the hard way.”

When they got to the practice room, Alex and Willie volunteered to set up the keyboard for Julie. Luke riffled through his journal to find the page he needed, handing it to Julie.

“It’s kind of rough,” he said apologetically, his hand coming to rub at the back of his neck in embarrassment. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay, I’ll figure it out,” she said, smiling. “Thank you for this, Luke, really. All I have is the song my mom wrote and… that’s still too fresh.”

Luke felt a brief flash of guilt, but pushed it down – what Julie didn’t know he’d listened to because he had poor impulse control and a disturbing preoccupation with music, wouldn’t hurt her. Or… something like that.

“So I thought Bright would be best for your range, you know?” he asked, pointing at the end of the chorus. “Go up over there, and you’re good to go.”

She sang under her breath, nodding to the imaginary beat. “You guys do one of your songs and I’ll practice this with a quick run through.”

He nodded, biting his lip when he smiled. She tapped the song against her hand, smiling up at him.

“Hey, lovebirds, any time you feel like joining us,” Nick called drily. Luke flushed and moved to grab his guitar. 

They ran through Lakeside Reflection, Now or Never, Crooked Teeth and Long Weekend while Julie kept the keyboard turned off, Alex’s noise cancelling headphones over her ears as she mouthed to herself. Luke would turn to watch her for a second, then realize it had been five and Bobby or Nick had taken over his chords, flush, and face forwards. And then, inevitably, another peek…

By the time they got to the end of Long Weekend, Trevor was smirking. “Get your pianist, boys, otherwise Luke won’t focus all night.”

Luke stuck his tongue out at his uncle, before waving his hand to get Julie’s attention. She looked up with a distant expression, waving him over.

“I don’t mean to editorialize your song,” she said, “but I think three guitarists on this is going to make it sound all muddy. Would Bobby be okay sitting out for a song? Or you?”

As much as Luke wanted to protest, he could see her point – the rhythm section would end up getting lost. 

“I’m happy to sit out,” Bobby said, having wandered over. “I could use a drink.”

“Me too,” Nick called from where he’d already gone to sit next to Carrie. 

“Then you should probably get one,” Bobby replied. Nick shot him a rude gesture, before being lightly cuffed over the head by Trevor. 

“You going to date my daughter and make gestures like that?” Trevor teased. Nick turned red and spluttered. 

Julie laughed and turned back to Luke. “You good to go?”

As much as he wanted to sit out to appreciate Julie in her element, the ultimate performer, the lure to perform with her was much stronger. “Ready when you are, Boss.”

She grinned at that as he moved back towards Alex and Reg. They gave him raised eyebrows that he interpreted as, _since when do you let other people editorialize your songs?_

Luke raised his back with a head tilt. _Her suggestion worked. Don’t be like that._

Alex snorted with an eyeroll. _Sure, Luke, whatever you have to tell yourself at night._

Julie took a deep breath, drawing their eyes back to her. She played a few chords, frowned, and stopped. Her eyes met Luke’s, suddenly scared and unsure.

His smile went soft again. “You got this.”

She nodded, closed her eyes for a moment, and set her fingers back on the keys. Luke thought if a pin had to drop, it would float on the anticipation rolling through the room like ocean waves as Julie picked out the beginning of the song.

And then she opened her mouth and began to sing.

“Sometimes I think, I’m falling down, I wanna cry, I’m calling out, for more try to feel alive,” she sang, her voice restrained. Luke couldn’t have told you in that moment what his face looked like, but he was pretty sure if he’d asked his friends they would have used the word simp liberally. 

The boys came in when she got to the chorus, coming in in a crash of sound. Julie grinned at Luke as she abandoned her seat behind the keyboard, coming to jam with the boys before turning to sing to her friends. Flynn whooped and got to her feet when Luke took over the second verse. He and Reggie shared the mic while Carrie pulled Nick to his feet, Willie following with enthusiasm. Trevor and Bobby remained sitting, probably because there was a very small square of dance space, and Flynn and Carrie were both very enthusiastic about it.

Julie came crashing back into the chorus, spinning Flynn before looking back at Luke. Taking the signal, he took the first half of the lines. “In times that I, doubted myself.”

Looking at Julie, she had her microphone held out, and he couldn’t resist. He moved to sing the rest of the lines directly at her. “I felt like I needed some help, stuck in my head, with nothing left.”

He moved to the intro into the final chorus, leaning into her almost without thought, and grinned at the fact that she’d mouthed the words to him. “Fight through the dark, and find the spark!”

She held the explosive note and led the boys through, while Willie whooped and jumped with Flynn and Carrie.

“Bright forever!”

Alex finished them out, before the room broke into explosive applause. Luke laughed, moving his guitar to sling over his back before Julie launched herself at him in an unexpected hug.

He got three seconds of processing – vanilla, cinnamon, leather, lanolin, warm, soft – before she pulled back to hug Reggie. He was laughing and congratulating her, and Alex gave Luke a knowing look before coming out from behind the drums to accept congratulations.

Flynn grabbed Julie, jumping with her on the spot and squealing as she did. “Girl! I can’t say it enough, that was incredible! There’s no way you won’t save your scholarship now!”

Luke frowned. “What scholarship?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any scenes from an alternate POV that you'd like to see, any 'lost scenes' or any scenes pre fic, please drop a comment - if I write it, I'll gift it to you so I'm guaranteed validation from at least one person 😂
> 
> Songs mentioned: Bright by Julie and the Phantoms ft. Luke's intense strumming right before Julie hits that note. You know the one.
> 
> If anyone (@Odyssey81418 I'm heavily looking at you right now) is interested in perhaps reading my chapters ahead of time and saving the 36 (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) people subscribed to the fic from all my typos, drop me an email at hookedbystarlight@gmail.com (please tell me your user name so I know who I'm talking to - people are cool, pickles pretending to emote are not).
> 
> If you'd like to see a kind of cool JatP crochet project I have going on right now, go look at my tumblr @angelofarts - I should have progress photos up in the next few days, they're both close to completion.
> 
> Any song recommendations are welcomed - I'd love to have music beyond "hey let's annoy Luke with country music because Angel thinks it's funny to torture her oblivious son". Any recommendations for Reggie's best man speeches also appreciated, and if you want to jump on that thread, please do - it's a whole thing, it's wonderful.
> 
> I think that's it? Oh, for those who remembered, I did finish my assignment before I cranked out the other half of the fic. It is finished, I am free! (until next week but that's a whole other thing)
> 
> Side note because I'm going through fixing all my spelling mistakes - WHY ARE SO MANY WORDS SPELLED DIFFERENT BETWEEN SOUTH AFRICA AND AMERICA. THEY ALL SOUND THE SAME. THIS IS UNNECESSARY AND DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY TO PERSECUTE ME PERSONALLY.
> 
> Okay, that actually should be it now. Have a good day/night/intangible concept of time passing, and please don't get distracted by powerhouses of music and walk into pools because I highly doubt it will be a pleasant experience. Thank you for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! My first fanfic, so a few disclaimers:  
> \- I know nothing about the American schooling system  
> \- I know nothing about New York or Los Angeles  
> \- this isn't betaed  
> \- its probably a horrible mistake but oh well  
> \- title from the song of the same name by Jukebox the Ghost
> 
> Hope you enjoy!


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